Abstract:

Matrix within cells, the cytoskeleton, and that which surrounds cells,the extracellular matrix (ECM), are connected to one another through a number of receptors including those in primary cilia, serving as an important chemical and physical signaling system: Mechanical forces generated through the matrix play a critical role in determining the form and function of tissues. Such forces, even in adult tissues, will be important given that breakdown of the ECM in adults may lead to the tissue changing from an adult phenotype to one of primordial or embryonic. As an example, chemical and mechanical signaling from the microenvironment and ECM to the cell can be so powerful as to change cellular phenotype from one of cancer to a normal somatic form. Even in development and inheritance, the matrix is important for what embryos receive from egg and sperm upon fertilization. Centrioles, the matrix structures responsible for cell division, are given by the paternal gamete. In the oocytes, the maternal gametes, the centriole is lost through desolvation.Thus, paternal matrix inheritance through the centriole structure is another important example of mechanism of heredity beyond the genome that may have consequences to neural dysfunction.