Back

Cell clusters are programmed towards a reductive metabolic 1 state by adherence junctions

Ayyangar, U.; Sathe, J.; Ahmad, S.; Laxman, S.

2025-10-03 cell biology
10.1101/2025.10.02.680172 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Solitary cells form stable clusters via cell-cell adhesion using adherens junctions. The role of these junctions in early cell-state changes as cells form clusters is unclear. Here, we uncover that the formation of cadherin junctions as cells cluster drives a ubiquitous metabolic reprogramming. This reprogramming enhances the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) and NADPH production to augment a reductive state. Consequently, cell clusters stabilized by cadherin junctions have reduced intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), are resistant to exogenous ROS-inducing agents, and have reduced apoptotic markers. Mechanistically, this metabolic reprogramming is driven by the cadherin-dependent activation of NRF2. Blocking the cadherin junction-dependent metabolic program reverses clustered cells to resemble the solitary cell state, increasing cell death and enhancing sensitivity to exogenous ROS. These insights suggest a biochemical basis for adherens junctions mediating a reductive metabolic program as solitary cells form clusters, with implications for understanding multicellular organization and collective cell behavior.

Matching journals

The top 7 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.