Distributing signaling proteins in space and time: the province of cytonemes

Abstract

During development, cells use specialized filopodia called cytonemes to deploy the signaling proteins that coordinate growth and direct morphogenesis. Cytonemes are dynamic structures that can extend long distances across tissues to either deliver or take up signaling proteins. Signaling proteins transfer between cells at the tips of cytonemes where specific contacts termed morphogenetic synapses form. This review summarizes our current understanding of the roles and functions of cytonemes, and it explores some of the conceptual issues relevant to the cytoneme mechanism of contact-dependent cell-cell signaling.