AJs are dynamically remodeled during lens cell state transition. (A) E-cadherin was non-polarly distributed in lens epidermal cells at 24 hpf. (B) Higher magnification of the white boxed region in A. Arrows show the punctuated accumulation of E-cadherin at the vertex points where three neighbor epidermal cells meet. a (anterior) and p (posterior) indicate the lens orientation. (C,D) Tricellular adherens (C, black arrowheads) and lateral punctum adherens (D, arrows) were the major adhesion plaques between lens epidermal cells in WT at 24 hpf. Punctum adherens existed at the lateral (C) and basal (D) regions. (E) E-cadherin was enriched in the apical regions of epithelial cells when epidermal-to-epithelial transition occurred at 28 hpf. (F) Higher magnifications of the white boxed region in E. Arrows show the punctuated accumulation of E-cadherin in the apical regions of epithelial cells. (G) AJs were assembled into zonula adherens at the apical domain between epithelia (white arrowheads). a (apical) and b (basal) indicate the orientation of lens epithelial cells. The black boxed region shows the apical zone between two epithelial cells. (H) Few adhesion plaques were observed in the basal regions between epithelia in WT at 36 hpf. (I) Lateral punctum adherens, but not apical zonula adherens, were observed between mesenchymal cells when epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition occurred. Ep, epithelium; M, mesenchymal cells; FC, fiber cells. Lower magnification TEM images showing the position of C,D and G-I in lens are presented in Fig. S1. Scale bars: 10 μm (A,B,E,F), 400 nm (C,D,G-I).
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