{"doi":"10.1016/j.bpj.2025.07.020","title":"Crumbs2 acts as a dynamic cellular sensor triggering stable podocyte cell-matrix anchorage","abstract":"Mammalian Crumbs proteins 2 (CRB2) and CRB3 are expressed in the kidney, with CRB2 mainly found within podocytes. Here, we focused on the function of CRB2 in podocytes. We investigated the CRB2/CRB3A membrane dynamics at the podocyte-podocyte contact interface in a cell culture model. Traction force microscopy was employed to clarify whether the homophilic CRB2 interactions occur in cis or trans. Live-cell imaging revealed the effects of CRB2 and CRB3A expression on cell migration from the single-cell level to large cellular networks at long space and timescales. We found that CRB2 interacts in trans, but surprisingly does not form stable interconnections. Instead, CRB2 acts as a dynamic sensor for the cellular environment and triggers a massive reorganization of focal adhesions and the actin cytoskeleton upon contact of CRB2-positive cells resulting in a strongly increased cell-matrix anchoring. Cytoskeleton reorganization can also be triggered by CRB3A; however, the increased cell-matrix anchorage is CRB2 specific.","journal":"Biophysical Journal","year":2025,"id":570708,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9617,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1476249,"name":"Annika Möller‐Kerutt","orcid":"0000-0003-2379-3800","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1476588,"name":"S. Gerlach","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1476250,"name":"Yannick Herfs","orcid":"0000-0003-2135-4919","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1476589,"name":"Rebecca Rixen","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":162075,"name":"Hermann Pavenstädt","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":109773,"name":"Bernd Hoffmann","orcid":"0000-0002-3803-8835","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":109774,"name":"Rudolf Merkel","orcid":"0000-0003-3178-3282","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":240948,"name":"Ulrich Kubitscheck","orcid":"0000-0003-3750-5355","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1476251,"name":"Thomas Weide","orcid":"0000-0002-2707-665X","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1476252,"name":"Jan Peter Siebrasse","orcid":"0009-0000-5113-5106","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1476587,"name":"Rohan Bhatia","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":39,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:57:11.713851Z","pmid":"40702732","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}