The skinny on Fat: an enormous cadherin that regulates cell adhesion, tissue growth, and planar cell polarity

Fat is an extremely large atypical cadherin involved in the regulation of cell adhesion, tissue growth, and planar cell polarity (PCP). Recent studies have begun to illuminate the mechanisms by which Fat performs these functions during development. Fat relays signals to the Hippo pathway to regulate tissue growth, and to PCP proteins to regulate tissue patterning. In this review we briefly cover the historical data demonstrating that Fat regulates tissue growth and tissue patterning, and then focus on advances in the past three years illuminating the mechanisms by which Fat controls growth and planar polarity in flies and mammals.