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Cell Dev. Biol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    During development, epithelia must coordinate morphogenesis with neighboring cell lineages to drive structural remodeling of organ systems. How adhesion between epithelial and other cell types is established and maintained remains poorly understood. Using the\n                    <jats:italic>Drosophila<\/jats:italic>\n                    ovary as an\n                    <jats:italic>in vivo<\/jats:italic>\n                    model, we show that anterior follicle cells (AFCs) undergo epithelial plasticity to establish and maintain adhesion with germline nurse cells during late oogenesis. As AFCs spread over the nurse-cell compartment, adherens junctions disassemble, and E-cadherin, together with junctional partners, reorganizes into apical \u201cspot junctions.\u201d Formation of these junctions requires E-cadherin in both follicle and germline cells and is promoted by the expansion of the AFC apical surface. Quantitative imaging reveals that spot junctions form a uniformly spaced lattice that remains stable as the AFC-nurse cell interface enlarges. Functionally, these E-cadherin-based junctions are essential to maintain soma\u2013germline adhesion, enabling full envelopment and clearance of nurse cell remnants by AFCs during late oogenesis. Our findings uncover a mechanism by which an epithelium repurposes its apical membrane into a specialized adhesive surface, providing a paradigm for the emergence of interlineage adhesion in developing tissues.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcell.2026.1807574","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]],"date-time":"2026-05-11T05:30:35Z","timestamp":1778477435000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Reorganization of E-cadherin into apical spot junctions mediates interlineage adhesion between epithelial and germline cells"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Vanessa","family":"Weichselberger","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory, EMBL Barcelona","place":["Barcelona, Spain"]},{"name":"Aix Marseille University, CNRS, UMR 7288, IBDM","place":["Marseille, France"]},{"name":"Hilde-Mangold-Haus, University of Freiburg","place":["Freiburg, Germany"]},{"name":"Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg","place":["Freiburg, Germany"]},{"name":"Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine (SGBM), University of Freiburg","place":["Freiburg, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ramya","family":"Balaji","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hilde-Mangold-Haus, University of Freiburg","place":["Freiburg, Germany"]},{"name":"Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg","place":["Freiburg, Germany"]},{"name":"Signalling Research Center BIOSS and CIBSS, University of Freiburg","place":["Freiburg, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marta","family":"Rodriguez-Franco","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg","place":["Freiburg, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anne-Kathrin","family":"Classen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hilde-Mangold-Haus, University of Freiburg","place":["Freiburg, Germany"]},{"name":"Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg","place":["Freiburg, Germany"]},{"name":"Signalling Research Center BIOSS and CIBSS, University of Freiburg","place":["Freiburg, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1242\/dev.171256","article-title":"Response of drosophila epithelial cell and tissue shape to external forces in vivo","volume":"146","author":"Balaji","year":"2019","journal-title":"Development"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"299","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tcb.2012.03.004","article-title":"Thinking outside the cell: how cadherins drive adhesion","volume":"22","author":"Brasch","year":"2012","journal-title":"Trends Cell Biol."},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"559","DOI":"10.1038\/s41580-022-00465-y","article-title":"Apical-basal polarity and the control of epithelial form and function","volume":"23","author":"Buckley","year":"2022","journal-title":"Nat. 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