Brain Armadillo protein delta-catenin interacts with Abl tyrosine kinase and modulates cellular morphogenesis in response to growth factors

delta-Catenin associates with adhesive junctions and facilitates cellular morphogenesis (Lu et aL, 1999). Here we show that delta-catenin colocalizes with actin filaments and AN tyrosine kinase in the growth cones of cultured hippocampal neurons. PC12 cells induced to express delta-catenin show accelerated neurite extension upon nerve growth factor (NGF) stimulation. STI571, an AN family kinase inhibitor, further accentuates these stimulatory effects. delta-Catenin is a potent substrate for AN in vitro using an immunocomplex assay and most of the Abl-induced tyrosine phosphorylation within cells is present in the N-terminus of delta-catenin. When delta-catenin-expressing epithelial cells are induced to scatter in response to hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), STI571 leads to the rapid redistribution of delta-catenin and changes in cellular morphology. We suggest that delta-catenin is a possible AN substrate and acts downstream of AN to orchestrate actin-based cellular morphogenesis. (C) 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.