The Wnt-5a gene encodes a secreted protein that controls several normal processes during embryogenesis and development of adult tissues by as yet unknown mechanisms. Endogenous expression of Wnt-5a mRNA is known to occur in both mouse and human mammary cell lines. To investigate the biological role of Wnt-5a in the human mammary epithelial cell line HB2, we used an antisense approach to repress endogenous expression of Wnt-5a protein. We also generated a cell population that constitutively overexpresses this protein. We found that overexpression of Wnt-5a protein enhanced cell-to-collagen binding and abolished hepatocyte growth factor-stimulated migration of HB2 transfectants through collagen matrices. Conversely, repression of Wnt-5a protein led to cell scattering, impaired cell-collagen interaction and enhanced cell motility. As we were searching for modified collagen receptors in antisense cells, we discovered that the collagen-binding discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1) failed to undergo phosphorylation. In reciprocal experiments, phosphorylation of DDR1 was consistently enabled by expression of Wnt-5a-HA protein in non-Wnt-5a-producing MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway did not influence or mimic the Wnt-5a-mediated effect on DDR1 phosphorylation. These data demonstrate that Wnt-5a protein participates in regulation of adhesion to and migration through collagen and is also a co-factor necessary for collagen-induced activation of DDR1 receptors in mammary epithelial cells.
Call for papers - Cilia and Flagella: from Basic Biology to Disease
We are welcoming submissions for our upcoming special issue: Cilia and Flagella: from Basic Biology to Disease. This issue will be coordinated by two Guest Editors: Pleasantine Mill (University of Edinburgh) and Lotte Pedersen (University of Copenhagen). Submission deadline: 1 March 2025.
About us
Our publisher, The Company of Biologists, turns 100 this year. Read about the history of the Company and find out what Sarah Bray, our Chair of the Board of Directors, has to say.
Biologists @ 100 - join us in Liverpool in March 2025
We are excited to invite you to a unique scientific conference, celebrating the 100-year anniversary of The Company of Biologists, and bringing together our different communities. The conference will incorporate the Spring Meetings of the BSCB and the BSDB, the JEB Symposium Sensory Perception in a Changing World and a DMM programme on antimicrobial resistance. Find out more and register your interest to join us in March 2025 in Liverpool, UK. The final deadline for registration is 28 February 2025.
Introducing our new Associate Editors
In this Editorial, JCS Editor-in-Chief Michael Way welcomes five new Associate Editors to the JCS team. These Associate Editors will expand our support for the wider cell biology community and handle articles in immune cell biology, proteostasis, imaging and image analysis, plant cell biology, and stem cell biology and modelling.
How to investigate GPCR signalling in cells
Abigail Pearce and colleagues provide a critical overview of new, state-of-the-art approaches used to quantitatively study G protein-coupled receptor signalling in cells.
JCS-FocalPlane Training Grants
Early-career researchers - working in an area covered by JCS - who would like to attend a microscopy training course, please apply. Deadline dates for 2025 applications: 7 March 2025 (decision by week commencing 21 April 2025) and 6 June 2025 (decision by week commencing 28 July 2025).
Social media
