Seeing and believing: recent advances in imaging cell-cell interactions

Advances in cell and developmental biology have often been closely linked to advances in our ability to visualize structure and function at many length and time scales. In this review, we discuss how new imaging technologies and new reagents have provided novel insights into the biology of cadherin-...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yap, Alpha S., Michael, Magdalene, Parton, Robert G.
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: F1000Research 2015
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4623898/
Description
Summary:Advances in cell and developmental biology have often been closely linked to advances in our ability to visualize structure and function at many length and time scales. In this review, we discuss how new imaging technologies and new reagents have provided novel insights into the biology of cadherin-based cell-cell junctions. We focus on three developments: the application of super-resolution optical technologies to characterize the nanoscale organization of cadherins at cell-cell contacts, new approaches to interrogate the mechanical forces that act upon junctions, and advances in electron microscopy which have the potential to transform our understanding of cell-cell junctions.