Movie S2. Assembly and Dynamics of an Integrated Cytoskeleton throughout an Epidermal Sheet

Freshly isolated epidermal keratinocytes were isolated from GFP-actin expressing normal or a-catenin null mice, and plated under conditions to promote cell-cell adhesion. Note that normal keratinocytes use the actin cytoskeletal connections to adherens junctions in order to coordinate movements within a developing sheet of interconnected epithelial cells. In contrast, mice lacking a-catenin (KO) cannot connect the actin cytoskeleton to adherens junctions, and consequently, they don’t form cohesive sheets of epithelial cells. For the complete story, see Vaezi et al. (2002).