UMMS Affiliation
Department of Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology
Publication Date
2019-03-19
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Cell Biology | Cells | Developmental Biology | Embryonic Structures
Abstract
Metazoan cell death mechanisms are diverse and include numerous non-apoptotic programs. One program called entosis involves the invasion of live cells into their neighbors and is known to occur in cancers. Here, we identify a developmental function for entosis: to clear the male-specific linker cell in C. elegans. The linker cell leads migration to shape the gonad and is removed to facilitate fusion of the gonad to the cloaca. We find that the linker cell is cleared in a manner involving cell-cell adhesions and cell-autonomous control of uptake through linker cell actin. Linker cell entosis generates a lobe structure that is deposited at the site of gonad-to-cloaca fusion and is removed during mating. Inhibition of lobe scission inhibits linker cell death, demonstrating that the linker cell invades its host while alive. Our findings demonstrate a developmental function for entosis: to eliminate a migrating cell and facilitate gonad-to-cloaca fusion, which is required for fertility.
Keywords
cell adhesion, cell cannibalism, engulfment, entosis, entotic cell death, gonad, linker cell death, lobe, scission, uropod
Rights and Permissions
Copyright 2019 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
DOI of Published Version
10.1016/j.celrep.2019.02.073
Source
Cell Rep. 2019 Mar 19;26(12):3212-3220.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.02.073. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Cell reports
Related Resources
PubMed ID
30893595
Repository Citation
Lee, Yongchan; Hamann, Jens C.; Pellegrino, Mark; Durgan, Joanne; Domart, Marie-Charlotte; Collinson, Lucy M.; Haynes, Cole M.; Florey, Oliver; and Overholtzer, Michael, "Entosis Controls a Developmental Cell Clearance in C. elegans" (2019). Open Access Articles. 3787.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/oapubs/3787
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Cell Biology Commons, Cells Commons, Developmental Biology Commons, Embryonic Structures Commons