Localized intercellular transfer of ephrin-As by trans-endocytosis enables long-term signaling
Abstract
Ephrins can elicit either contact-mediated cell-cell adhesion or repulsion, depending on the efficiency of removal of their ligand/receptor complexes from the cell surface, thus controlling tissue morphogenesis and oncogenic development. However, the dynamic of turnover of the newly assembled ephrin/Eph complexes during cell-cell interactions remains mostly unexplored. Here we show that ephrin-A1/EphA2 complexes are locally formed at the tip of filopodia, at cell-to-cell contacts. Clusters of ephrin-A1 from donor cells surf on filopodia associated to EphA2-bearing sub-domains of acceptor cells. Fulllength ephrin-A1 is transferred to acceptor cells by trans-endocytosis through a proteolysisindependent mechanism. Trans-endocytosed ephrin-A1 bound to its receptor enables signaling to be emitted from endo-lysosomes of acceptor cells. Localized trans-endocytosis of ephrin-A1 sustains contact-mediated repulsion on cancer cells. Our results uncover the essential role played by local concentration at the tip of filopodia and the trans-endocytosis of full-length ephrin to maintain long-lasting ephrin signaling.
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