Mechanical cues polarize ADIP protein complexes to control vertebrate morphogenesis and wound healing.

Planar cell polarity (PCP) is a phenomenon of coordinated cell orientation in many epithelia and is required for early morphogenetic events, such as vertebrate gastrulation or neural tube closure, that place embryonic tissues in their proper locations. Known PCP complexes segregate to opposite edges of each cell due to regulatory feedback interactions; however, whether and how PCP is connected to the tension-sensing machinery has been elusive. Here, we observed dynamic polarization of afadin- and α-actinin-interacting protein (ADIP) in the epithelia adjacent to the involuting marginal zone and the folding neural plate of Xenopus embryos, suggesting that it is controlled by mechanical cues.

Mechanical cues organize planar cell polarity during vertebrate morphogenesis and embryonic wound repair.

Unlabelled: Planar cell polarity (PCP) is a phenomenon of coordinated cell orientation in many epithelia and is required for early morphogenetic events, such as vertebrate gastrulation or neural tube closure that place embryonic tissues in their proper locations. Known PCP complexes segregate to opposite edges of each cell due to regulatory feedback interactions, however, whether and how PCP is connected to the tension-sensing machinery has been elusive. Here we observed dynamic polarization of Afadin- and α-Actinin-interacting protein (ADIP) in the epithelia adjacent to the involuting marginal zone and the folding neural plate of embryos, suggesting that it is controlled by mechanical cues.