We cloned and characterized a novel member of the tenascin family of extracellular matrix proteins - the murine orthologue of zebrafish tenascin-W. Full-length recombinant tenascin-W was expressed and purified from mammalian cell cultures. Rotary shadowing followed by electron microscopy showed that tenascin-W forms hexabrachions. We studied its expression during development and in the adult by immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization and immunoblotting. Tenascin-W is expressed during palate formation, osteogenesis and smooth muscle development. In the adult, tenascin-W is found in the kidney, cardiac semilunar valves, corneal limbus and periosteum. Tenascin-W and tenascin-C expression overlap in many of these areas. Bone-morphogenic-protein-2 treated C2C12 cells secrete tenascin-W and are able to adhere to and to extend actin-rich processes on a tenascin-W substratum. In vitro, cells bind to tenascin-W in an RGD-dependent manner. This adhesion is increased by transfection of α8 integrin, which localizes with tenascin-W in the periosteum and kidney.
Interviews with Biologists @ 100 conference speakers
Explore our interviews with keynote speakers from the Biologists @ 100 conference, hosted to celebrate our publisher’s 100th anniversary, where we discuss climate change and biodiversity with Hans-Otto Pörtner and Jane Francis, health and disease with Charles Swanton and Sadaf Farooqi, and emerging technologies with Manu Prakash and Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz.
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.
The spatial choreography of mRNA biosynthesis
In their Review, André Ventura-Gomes and Maria Carmo-Fonseca detail the latest research progress and technological advancements that are helping to unlock how nuclear organisation underpins control of gene transcription and pre-mRNA splicing.
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: 6 June 2025 (decision by week commencing 28 July 2025) and 5 September 2025 (decision by week commencing 20 October 2025).
The emerging roles of the endoplasmic reticulum in mechanosensing and mechanotransduction
In their Review, Jonathan Townson and Cinzia Progida highlight recently emerging evidence for a role of the endoplasmic reticulum in enabling a cell to sense and respond to changes in the extracellular mechanical environment.
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