Desmosomes articles from across Nature Portfolio

Bharathan et al. discover that the endoplasmic reticulum associates with keratin intermediate filaments and desmosomal cell–cell junctions, and that desmosomes and the keratin cytoskeleton regulate the distribution, dynamics and function of the endoplasmic reticulum network.

Pemphigus vulgaris is a life-threatening blistering skin disease caused by autoantibodies which destabilize cell adhesion of keratinocytes. The phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor apremilast prevents skin blistering by stabilizing the keratin filament anchorage of desmosomes.

The epidermis is a multi-layered epithelium formed by the differentiation of basal cells and movement into suprabasal layers. Here the authors define a role for the desmosomal cadherin desmoglein-1 in promoting the delamination of basal cells by remodeling the actin cytoskeleton through interactions with the dynein light chain Tctex-1 and cortactin.

Desmosomes and keratin are now found to regulate the distribution and dynamics of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). This suggests that a range of ER functions may be coordinated by this intercellular adhesive and cytoskeletal network.