Cell-cell junctions: Cadherins

In cellular physiology, one of the topics we studied was cell junctions between epithelial cells. One type of cellular junction that exists in these epithelial cells is called anchoring junctions. These junctions connect these cells to other cells and/or cells to the basal lamina below the epithelial tissue. These junctions are what allow epithelial tissue to redistribute and transmit stress. But it turns out that these connections aren’t actually connections. They are mediated by interactions between transmembrane proteins called cadherins. These cadherins interact with cadherins on the adjacent cells and create an extremely tight junction between the epithelial cells. We quickly touched on these protein functions in clas, but never explained how they are able to interact so strongly. Its cool because now with some biochem knowledge, I can assume that there are electrostatic interactions between the residues on these interacting cadherins, since these interactions would create the strongest noncovalent association between these two proteins. Basically, our skin would fall apart without non covalent interactions!