Disruption of epithelial cell-cell adhesion by exogenous expression of a mutated nonfunctional N-cadherin

Cadherins, a family of transmembrane cell-cell adhesion receptors, require interactions with the cytoskeleton for normal function. To assess the mechanisms of these interactions, we studied the effect of exogenous expression of a mutant N-cadherin, cN390 delta; on epithelial cell-cell adhesion. The intracellular domain of cN390 delta was intact but its extracellular domain was largely deleted so that this molecule was not functional for cell adhesion. cDNA of cN390 delta was attached to the metallothionein promoter, and introduced into the keratinocyte line PAM212 expressing endogenous E- and P-cadherin. When the expression of cN390 delta was induced by Zn2+, cadherin-dependent adhesion of the transfected cells was inhibited, resulting in the dispersion of cell colonies, although their contacts were maintained under high cell density conditions. In these cultures, cN390 delta was expressed not only on the free surfaces of the cells but also at cell-cell junctions. The endogenous cadherins were concentrated at cell-cell junctions under normal conditions. As a result of cN390 delta expression, however, the endogenous cadherins localizing at the cell-cell junctions were largely diminished, suggesting that these molecules were replaced by the mutant molecules at these sites. As a control, we transfected the same cell line with cDNA of a truncated form of N-cadherin cadherin whose intracellular C terminus had been deleted leaving the extracellular domain intact. This molecule had no effect on cell-cell adhesion, nor did it localize to cell-cell contact sites. We also found that the association of the endogenous cadherins with alpha- and beta-catenins and plakoglobin was not affected by the expression of cN390 delta, which also formed a complex with these molecules, suggesting that no competition occurred between the endogenous and exogenous cadherins for these cytoplasmic proteins. These and other additional results suggest that the nonfunctional cadherins whose intracellular domain is intact occupy the sites where the endogenous cadherins should localize, through interactions with the cytoskeleton, and inhibit the cadherin adhesion system.