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Regulating polarity by directing traffic: Cdc42 prevents adherens junctions from crumblin' aPart
1Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Abstract:
The GTPase Cdc42 was among the original genes identified with roles in cell polarity, and interest in its cellular roles from yeast to humans remains high. Cdc42 is a well-known regulator of the actin cytoskeleton, but also plays important roles in vesicular trafficking. In this issue, Harris and Tepass (Harris, K.P, and U. Tepass. 2008. J. Cell. Biol. 183:1129-1143) provide new insights into how Cdc42 and Par proteins work together to modulate cell adhesion and polarity during embryonic morphogenesis by regulating the traffic of key cell junction proteins.
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