biosights: April 2 2018 - Dia1-dependent adhesions help epithelia branch out
4The actin cytoskeleton and its regulators play key roles in the maturation and stabilization of focal adhesions but how adhesion maturation affects tissue morphogenesis is largely unknown. Fessenden et al. reveal that the actin-nucleating formin protein Dia1 promotes branching morphogenesis by stabilizing adhesions that are required for epithelial tissues to initiate invasion. This biosights episode presents the paper by Fessenden et al. from the April 2nd, 2018, issue of the Journal of Cell Biology and includes an interview with the paper’s senior author, Margaret Gardel (University of Chicago). Produced by Caitlin Sedwick and Ben Short. See the associated paper in JCB (https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201703145) for details on the funding provided to support this original research.