?

Phenotypes

Mouse phenotype:

abnormal neural tube closure, abnormal embryo turning, abnormal heart morphology, abnormal midbrain development

Subcellular localization

basal body, Cell Junctions

Functional category

• Cilia–cytoskeleton/adhesion links

Function

PKPs interact with and enhance the recruitment of desmoplakin (DSP) at desmosomes. We examined if DSP shows a similar localization pattern to PKP3 in MCCs. We expressed human DSP-GFP (67% identity and 82.5% similarity with Xenopus DSP, Figure S4) with centrin-RFP and imaged embryos live. DSP-GFP shows the characteristic desmosomal pattern and an enrichment near basal bodies (Figure 2A). Similar to PKP3, the DSP signal is asymmetric with respect to basal bodies. Imaging of fixed MCCs that express DSP-GFP and clamp-BFP shows that DSP co-localizes with clamp (Figure 2B)(40508190).