p120ctn is a catenin whose direct binding to the juxtamembrane domain of classical cadherins suggests a role in regulating cell–cell adhesion. The juxtamembrane domain has been implicated in a variety of roles including cadherin clustering, cell motility, and neuronal outgrowth, raising the possibility that p120 mediates these activities. We have generated minimal mutations in this region that uncouple the E-cadherin–p120 interaction, but do not affect interactions with other catenins. By stable transfection into E-cadherin–deficient cell lines, we show that cadherins are both necessary and sufficient for recruitment of p120 to junctions. Detergent-free subcellular fractionation studies indicated that, in contrast to previous reports, the stoichiometry of the interaction is extremely high. Unlike α- and β-catenins, p120 was metabolically stable in cadherin-deficient cells, and was present at high levels in the cytoplasm. Analysis of cells expressing E-cadherin mutant constructs indicated that p120 is required for the E-cadherin–mediated transition from weak to strong adhesion. In aggregation assays, cells expressing p120-uncoupled E-cadherin formed only weak cell aggregates, which immediately dispersed into single cells upon pipetting. As an apparent consequence, the actin cytoskeleton failed to insert properly into peripheral E-cadherin plaques, resulting in the inability to form a continuous circumferential ring around cell colonies. Our data suggest that p120 directly or indirectly regulates the E-cadherin–mediated transition to tight cell–cell adhesion, possibly blocking subsequent events necessary for reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton and compaction.

p120(ctn) is an Armadillo repeat domain protein with structural similarity to the cell adhesion cofactors beta-catenin and plakoglobin. All three proteins interact directly with the cytoplasmic domain of the transmembrane cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin; beta-catenin and plakoglobin bind a carboxy-terminal region in a mutually exclusive manner, while p120 binds the juxtamembrane region. Unlike beta-catenin and plakoglobin, p120 does not interact with alpha-catenin, the tumor suppressor adenomatous polyposis coli (APC), or the transcription factor Lef-1, suggesting that it has unique binding partners and plays a distinct role in the cadherin-catenin complex. Using p120 as bait, we conducted a yeast two-hybrid screen and identified a novel transcription factor which we named Kaiso. Kaiso's deduced amino acid sequence revealed an amino-terminal BTB/POZ protein-protein interaction domain and three carboxy-terminal zinc fingers of the C2H2 DNA-binding type. Kaiso thus belongs to a rapidly growing family of POZ-ZF transcription factors that include the Drosophila developmental regulators Tramtrak and Bric à brac, and the human oncoproteins BCL-6 and PLZF, which are causally linked to non-Hodgkins' lymphoma and acute promyelocytic leukemia, respectively. Monoclonal antibodies to Kaiso were generated and used to immunolocalize the protein and confirm the specificity of the p120-Kaiso interaction in mammalian cells. Kaiso specifically coprecipitated with a variety of p120-specific monoclonal antibodies but not with antibodies to alpha- or beta-catenin, E-cadherin, or APC. Like other POZ-ZF proteins, Kaiso localized to the nucleus and was associated with specific nuclear dots. Yeast two-hybrid interaction assays mapped the binding domains to Arm repeats 1 to 7 of p120 and the carboxy-terminal 200 amino acids of Kaiso. In addition, Kaiso homodimerized via its POZ domain but it did not heterodimerize with BCL-6, which heterodimerizes with PLZF. The involvement of POZ-ZF proteins in development and cancer makes Kaiso an interesting candidate for a downstream effector of cadherin and/or p120 signaling.

pl20"S is a tyrosine kinase substrate implicated in ligand-induced receptor signaling through the epidermal growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, and colony-stimulating factor receptors and in cell transformation by Src. Here we report that p120 associates with a complex containing E-cadherin, a-catenin, 0-catenin, and plakoglobin. Furthermore, p120 precisely colocalizes with E-cadherin and catenins in vivo in both normal and Src-transformed MDCK cells. Unlike IB-catenin and plakoglobin, p120 has at least four isoforms which are differentially expressed in a variety of cell types, suggesting novel means of modulating cadherin activities in cells. In Src-transformed MDCK cells, p120, IB-catenin, and plakoglobin were heavily phosphorylated on tyrosine, but the physical associations between these proteins were not disrupted. Association of p120 with the cadherin machinery indicates that both Src and receptor tyrosine kinases cross talk with proteins important for cadherin-mediated cell adhesion. These results also strongly suggest a role for p120 in cell adhesion. p120 is a major Src substrate whose phosphorylation on tyrosine correlates with cell transformation (41). Unlike most Src substrates, p120 is not phosphorylated by nonmyristylated Src mutants which cannot phosphorylate critical membraneassociated substrates necessary for cell transformation. In addition, p120 is tyrosine phosphorylated in response to ligand-induced stimulation of several receptor tyrosine kinases, including those for epidermal growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, and colony-stimulating factor 1 (6, 17). Although these observations suggest that p120 plays a role in cell transformation and ligand-induced signaling, the predicted amino acid sequence of p120 lacks motifs (e.g., SH2 and SH3 domains) that might suggest its participation in mitogenic signaling.One striking feature of the p120 sequence is the presence of an Arm domain (36, 40) comprising 11 copies of a 42-aminoacid motif originally described for the Drosophila segment polarity gene product, armadillo (38,42). The function of the Arm domain is unknown, but armadillo's vertebrate homologs, 0-catenin and plakoglobin, bind to the cytoplasmic tail of E-cadherin, an interaction essential for cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion (29,33). The cadherins are a family of transmembrane glycoproteins that connect cells by Ca2+-dependent homophilic interactions between their extracellular domains (for a review, see reference 51). Their intracellular cytoplasmic segments are thought to anchor cadherins to the actin cytoskeleton through a-catenin, 0-catenin, and -y-catenin (plakoglobin). a-Catenin probably mediates the interaction with actin, because it is partially homologous to the actinbinding protein vinculin (12,30), and its presence in complexes with cadherin correlates with the ability of these complexes to bind to DNase I actin-binding columns (33). Critical roles for P-catenin and plakoglobin in adhesion are largely inferred,

The p120(ctn)-binding partner Kaiso is a new member of the POZ-zinc finger family of transcription factors implicated in development and cancer. To understand the role of Kaiso in gene regulation and p120(ctn)-mediated signaling and adhesion, we sought to identify Kaiso-specific DNA binding sequences and potential target genes. Here we demonstrate that Kaiso is a dual specificity DNA-binding protein that recognizes the specific consensus sequence TCCTGCNA as well as methyl-CpG dinucleotides. A minimal core sequence CTGCNA was identified as sufficient for Kaiso binding. Two copies of the Kaiso-binding site are present in the human and murine matrilysin promoters, implicating matrilysin as a candidate target gene for Kaiso. In electrophoretic mobility shift assays, matrilysin promoter-derived oligonucleotide probes formed a complex with GST-Kaiso fusion proteins possessing the zinc finger domain but not with fusion proteins lacking the zinc fingers. We further determined that only Kaiso zinc fingers 2 and 3 were necessary and sufficient for sequence-specific DNA binding. Interestingly, Kaiso also possesses a methyl-CpG-dependent DNA-binding activity distinct from its sequence-specific DNA binding. However, Kaiso has a higher affinity for the TCCTGCNA consensus than for the methyl-CpG sites. Furthermore, the DNA-binding ability of Kaiso with either recognition site was inhibited by p120(ctn). Kaiso thus appears to have two modes of DNA binding and transcriptional repression, both of which may be modulated by its interaction with the adhesion cofactor p120(ctn).

Cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion is perturbed in protein tyrosine kinase (PTK)-transformed cells. While cadherins themselves appear to be poor PTK substrates, their cytoplasmic binding partners, the Arm catenins, are excellent PTK substrates and therefore good candidates for mediating PTK-induced changes in cadherin behavior. These proteins, p120ctn, beta-catenin and plakoglobin, bind to the cytoplasmic region of classical cadherins and function to modulate adhesion and/or bridge cadherins to the actin cytoskeleton. In addition, as demonstrated recently for beta-catenin, these proteins also have crucial signaling roles that may or may not be related to their effects on cell-cell adhesion. Tyrosine phosphorylation of cadherin complexes is well documented and widely believed to modulate cell adhesiveness. The data to date, however, is largely correlative and the mechanism of action remains unresolved. In this review, we discuss the current literature and suggest models whereby tyrosine phosphorylation of Arm catenins contribute to regulation or perturbation of cadherin function.

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Gastrulation movements are critical for establishing the three principal germ layers and the basic architecture of vertebrate embryos. Although the individual molecules and pathways involved are not clearly understood, non-canonical Wnt signals are known to participate in developmental processes, including planar cell polarity and directed cell rearrangements. Here we demonstrate that the dual-specificity transcriptional repressor Kaiso, first identified in association with p120-catenin, is required for Xenopus gastrulation movements. In addition, depletion of xKaiso results in increased expression of the non-canonical xWnt11, which contributes to the xKaiso knockdown phenotype as it is significantly rescued by dominant-negative Wnt11. We further demonstrate that xWnt11 is a direct gene target of xKaiso and that p120-catenin association relieves xKaiso repression in vivo. Our results indicate that p120-catenin and Kaiso are essential components of a new developmental gene regulatory pathway that controls vertebrate morphogenesis.

The tyrosine kinase substrate p120cas (CAS), which is structurally similar to the cell adhesion proteins beta-catenin and plakoglobin, was recently shown to associate with the E-cadherin-catenin cell adhesion complex. beta-catenin, plakoglobin, and CAS all have an Arm domain that consists of 10 to 13 repeats of a 42-amino-acid motif originally described in the Drosophila Armadillo protein. To determine if the association of CAS with the cadherin cell adhesion machinery is similar to that of beta-catenin and plakoglobin, we examined the CAS-cadherin-catenin interactions in a number of cell lines and in the yeast two-hybrid system. In the prostate carcinoma cell line PC3, CAS associated normally with cadherin complexes despite the specific absence of alpha-catenin in these cells. However, in the colon carcinoma cell line SW480, which has negligible E-cadherin expression, CAS did not associate with beta-catenin, plakoglobin, or alpha-catenin, suggesting that E-cadherin is the protein which bridges CAS to the rest of the complex. In addition, CAS did not associate with the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor protein in any of the cell lines analyzed. Interestingly, expression of the various CAS isoforms was quite heterogeneous in these tumor cell lines, and in the colon carcinoma cell line HCT116, which expresses normal levels of E-cadherin and the catenins, the CAS1 isoforms were completely absent. By using the yeast two-hybrid system, we confirmed the direct interaction between CAS and E-cadherin and determined that CAS Arm repeats 1 to 10 are necessary and sufficient for this interaction. Hence, like beta-catenin and plakoglobin, CAS interacts directly with E-cadherin in vivo; however, unlike beta-catenin and plakoglobin, CAS does not interact with APC or alpha-catenin.