Publisher Summary Intercellular junctions are specialized regions of contact between the apposed plasma membranes of adjacent cells, and recent evidence suggests that they are essential for the development of multicellular organisms. They provide the structural means for groups of cells to interact in certain defined ways, and thereby enable them to create structures of higher order. This chapter reviews the morphological information on intercellular junctions derived from thin-sectioning, negative staining and freeze-cleave techniques, as well as from x-ray diffraction and biochemical investigations, and correlates the structural parameters with known or proposed physiological functions. The membrane structure of intercellular junctions is described. Membrane proteins can be divided into two groups: peripheral and integral. Peripheral membrane proteins are believed to be associated with the membrane surface, based on the observation that they are held to the membrane by rather weak noncovalent interactions, and are not strongly associated with membrane lipids. Only mild treatments, such as an increase in ionic strength of the medium or the addition of a chelating agent, are needed to dissociate them molecularly intact from the membrane. Furthermore, in the dissociated state they are relatively soluble in neutral aqueous buffers. In contrast, integral membrane proteins appear much more strongly bound to the lipid matrix, since they can be dissociated from the latter only by drastic treatments with chemicals such as detergents, protein denaturants, and organic solvents. The diversity in structure and function of intercellular junctions offers an exciting field for future research in which morphologists, physiologists, and biochemists should be able to make significant contributions to the knowledge of how individual cells interact to form structures of higher order.

Structure and function of intercellular junctions.

Crystal structures of the amino-terminal domain of N-cadherin provide a picture at the atomic level of a specific adhesive contact between cells. A repeated set of dimer interfaces is common to the structure in three lattices. These interactions combine to form a linear zipper of molecules that mirrors the linear structure of the intracellular filaments with which cadherins associate. This cell-adhesion zipper may provide a mechanism to marshal individual molecular adhesive interactions into strong bonds between cells.

Structural basis of cell-cell adhesion by cadherins.

Junctional intercellular communication and the control of growth

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the interactions of lectins with animal cell surfaces. Lectin interactions with cell surfaces can be put into a proper framework for understanding complex phenomena such as lectin-induced mitogenic stimulation, cell agglutination, and lectin-mediated cell toxicity. Lectins have been isolated from a wide variety of plants and animals, from legumes to horseshoe crabs. Lectins generally have the property of agglutinating cells through their cell surface oligosaccharide determinants, and in some cases these determinants have been elucidated by determining the sequences or sugars responsible for saccharide inhibition of agglutination. Because of the carbohydrate-binding specificities of lectins, some of these agglutinins have proven to be quite useful for clinical blood typing and structural studies of blood group substances, in analysis of the surface structure of normal and tumor cells, for specific isolation of glycoproteins and oligo- and mucopolysaccharides, in studies on mitogenesis, as antigen-antibody models, and so on. They have also proven to be invaluable as specific molecular probes for studying membrane, cell, and tissue structure and organization.

The interactions of lectins with animal cell surfaces.

(1974). Actin And Myosin And Cell Movemen. CRC Critical Reviews in Biochemistry: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-65.

Actin and myosin and cell movement.

The ultrastructure of cat papillary muscle was studied with respect to the organization of the contractile material, the structure of the organelles, and the cell junctions. The morphological changes during prolonged work in vitro and some effects of fixation were assessed. The myofilaments are associated in a single coherent bundle extending throughout the fiber cross-section. The absence of discrete "myofibrils" in well preserved cardiac muscle is emphasized. The abundant mitochondria confined in clefts among the myofilaments often have slender prolongations, possibly related to changes in their number or their distribution as energy sources within the contractile mass. The large T tubules that penetrate ventricular cardiac muscle fibers at successive I bands are arranged in rows and are lined with a layer of protein-polysaccharide. Longitudinal connections between T tubules are common. The simple plexiform sarcoplasmic reticulum is continuous across the Z lines, and no circumferential "Z tubules" were identified. Specialized contacts between the reticulum and the sarcolemma are established on the T tubules and the cell periphery via subsarcolemmal saccules or cisterns. At cell junctions, a 20 A gap can be demonstrated between the apposed membranes in those areas commonly interpreted as sites of membrane fusion. In papillary muscles worked in vitro without added substrate, there is a marked depletion of both glycogen and lipid. No morphological evidence for preferential use of glycogen was found.

/pdf/the-ultrastructure-of-the-cat-myocardium-i-ventricular-562zraq9sx.pdf

THE ULTRASTRUCTURE OF THE CAT MYOCARDIUM: I. Ventricular Papillary Muscle

Membrane ultrastructure at mammalian intercellular junctions

A correlation is made between the appearances of the nexus ("gap junction") as revealed by thin-section and by freeze-cleave electron microscopy techniques. These methods reveal different aspects of a complex subunit assembly forming the nexus membranes. In thin sections, the nexus is formed by the very close apposition of two "unit" membranes. The electron-opaque tracer, colloidal lanthanum hydroxide, outlines an aspect of electron-lucent subunits that project into the central region of the nexus. The freeze-cleave technique demonstrates novel membrane faces that are generated from within the interior of plasma membranes by splitting them into two lamellae (Lm): Lm 1 adjacent to the cytoplasm, and Lm 2 adjacent to the extracellular space. Each of the two membranes forming the nexus can be split into these two lamellae. On the new face of Lm 1, particles approximately 50 A in diameter are closely packed in an array which is often hexagonal with a 90–100 A center-to-center spacing. The two apposed lamellae (Lm 2-Lm 2) of the nexus are constructed of sheets of subunits in a similar array. The Lm 1 particles appear to extend into the Lm 2 subunits to form macromolecular complexes. The Lm 2 subunits extend to the center of the nexus to form the contacts outlined by lanthanum in sections. It is postulated that central hydrophilic channels may extend through the subunit assembly to provide a direct route for intercellular communication.

https://rupress.org/jcb/article-pdf/47/3/666/1069519/666.pdf

The ultrastructure of the nexus. A correlated thin-section and freeze-cleave study.

The ultrastructure of the cells specialized for contraction in the atrium and ventricle of young adult cats are compared. The cells specialized for conduction are not included. In addition to possessing distinctive atrial granules, the cells of the atrium are smaller in diameter (5–6 µ) than ventricular cells (10–12 µ) and have strikingly fewer T tubules. These latter differences are discussed in terms of their possible significance for the rate of conduction of the action potential. It is suggested that the very small number of T tubules in atrial cells may compensate for the small cell diameter, and thus permit rapid conduction of the action potential across the surface of the atrium. Coated dense vesicles found in association with the sarcoplasmic reticulum at the level of the Z line in ventricular muscle are more evident in atrial cells. In the virtual absence of T tubules in atrial cells, the sub-sarcolemmal cisternae of the sarcoplasmic reticulum are almost exclusively at the cell periphery. The ends of the cells and their processes in ventricular muscle are rectilinear with the interdigitated portions of the intercalated discs oriented transversely, whereas those of the atrium are often oblique to the myofilament axis. This difference may be related to the lower mechanical tension on atrial cells.

/pdf/the-ultrastructure-of-the-cat-myocardium-ii-atrial-muscle-46oj538prt.pdf

The ultrastructure of the cat myocardium. II. Atrial muscle.

A comparison is made of the ultrastructure of the cell periphery in three cloned cell lines: untransformed Balb/c 3T3 cells, SV40-transformed Balb/c 3T3 cells, and revertant cells obtained from the transformed cell line by a selection technique utilizing concanavalin A. Both thin-section and surface replication techniques are used for in situ examination of the cell lines. Microfilaments, 70 A in diameter (called alpha filaments), are abundant in untransformed and revertant cell lines, particularly in the anterior expansions of the cells, which tend to have many microvilli and small pseudopodia. Alpha filaments are diminished in the anterior expansions of transformed cells, which contain large blunt pseudopodia and relatively few microvilli. Surface replicas confirm the impression gained from thin sections that transformed cells have a greater proportion of their cell surface involved in bulging pseudopodia than either untransformed or revertant cells. Since alpha filaments are shown to bind heavy meromyosin and are similar to F-actin, these filaments are thought to be important in cell motility. These observations suggest that a close relationship exists between decreased alpha filaments, bulging pseudopodia, and loss of contact inhibition of movement in transformed cells.

https://rupress.org/jcb/article-pdf/56/2/412/1386229/412.pdf

CONTACT-INHIBITED REVERTANT CELL LINES ISOLATED FROM SV40-TRANSFORMED CELLS IV. Microfilament Distribution and Cell Shape in Untransformed, Transformed, and Revertant Balb/c 3T3 Cells

N. Scott McNutt

Papers

THE ULTRASTRUCTURE OF THE CAT MYOCARDIUM: I. Ventricular Papillary Muscle

Membrane ultrastructure at mammalian intercellular junctions

The ultrastructure of the nexus. A correlated thin-section and freeze-cleave study.

The ultrastructure of the cat myocardium. II. Atrial muscle.

CONTACT-INHIBITED REVERTANT CELL LINES ISOLATED FROM SV40-TRANSFORMED CELLS IV. Microfilament Distribution and Cell Shape in Untransformed, Transformed, and Revertant Balb/c 3T3 Cells