Cell polarity The missing link in skeletal morphogenesis?

• Published in: Organogenesis Vol. 7; no. 3; pp. 217 - 228
• Main Authors: Romereim, Sarah M., Dudley, Andrew T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Taylor & Francis 01-07-2011; Landes Bioscience
• Subjects: Animals; Binding; Biology; Bioscience; Bone and Bones - embryology; Bone and Bones - metabolism; Bone Development; Calcium; Cancer; Cell; Cell Polarity; Cycle; Extremities - embryology; Extremities - growth & development; Humans; Landes; Morphogenesis; Organogenesis; Proteins; Review; Signal Transduction; Wnt Proteins - metabolism
• ISSN: 1547-6278; 1555-8592
• DOI: 10.4161/org.7.3.18583

Despite extensive genetic analysis of the dynamic multi-phase process that transforms a small population of lateral plate mesoderm into the mature limb skeleton, the mechanisms by which signaling pathways regulate cellular behaviors to generate morphogenetic forces are not known. Recently, a series of papers have offered the intriguing possibility that regulated cell polarity fine-tunes the morphogenetic process via orienting cell axes, division planes and cell movements. Wnt5a-mediated non-canonical signaling, which may include planar cell polarity, has emerged as a common thread in the otherwise distinct signaling networks that regulate morphogenesis in each phase of limb development. These findings position the limb as a key model to elucidate how global tissue patterning pathways direct local differences in cell behavior that, in turn, generate growth and form.