Loss of intermicrovillar adhesion impairs basolateral junctional complexes in transporting epithelia

Transporting epithelial cells in the gut and kidney rely on protocadherin-based apical adhesion complexes to organize microvilli that extend into the luminal space. In these systems, CDHR2 and CDHR5 localize to the distal ends of microvilli, where they form an intermicrovillar adhesion complex (IMAC) that links the tips of these structures, promotes the formation of a well-ordered array of protrusions, and in turn maximizes apical membrane surface area. Recently, we discovered that IMACs can also form between microvilli that extend from neighboring cells, across cell-cell junctions. As an additional point of physical contact between cells, transjunctional IMACs are well positioned to impact the integrity of canonical tight and adherens junctions that form more basolaterally. Here, we sought to test this idea using cell culture and mouse models that lacked CDHR2 expression and were unable to form IMACs. CDHR2 knockout perturbed cell and junction morphology, led to loss of key components from tight and adherens junctions, and impaired barrier function and wound healing. These results indicate that, in addition to organizing apical microvilli, IMACs provide a layer of cell-cell contact that functions in parallel with canonical tight and adherens junctions to support the physiological functions of transporting epithelia.