Xenopus ADAM 13 is a metalloprotease required for cranial neural crest-cell migration.

Cranial neural-crest (CNC) cells originate from the lateral edge of the anterior neuroepithelium and migrate to form parts of the peripheral nervous system, muscles, cartilage, and bones of the face. Neural crest-cell migration involves the loss of adhesion from the surrounding neuroepithelium and a corresponding increase in cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix (ECM) present in migratory pathways. While proteolytic activity is likely to contribute to the regulation of neural crest-cell adhesion and migration, the role of a neural crest-specific protease in these processes has yet to be demonstrated. We previously showed that CNC cells express ADAM 13, a cell surface metalloprotease/disintegrin. Proteins of this family are known to act in cell-cell adhesion and as sheddases. ADAMs have also been proposed to degrade the ECM, but this has not yet been shown in a physiological context. Using a tissue transplantation technique, we show that Xenopus CNC cells overexpressing wild-type ADAM 13 migrate along the same hyoid, branchial, and mandibular pathways used by normal CNC cells. In contrast, CNC cell grafts that express protease-defective ADAM 13 fail to migrate along the hyoid and branchial pathways. In addition, ectopic expression of wild-type ADAM 13 results in a gain-of-function phenotype in embryos, namely the abnormal positioning of trunk neural-crest cells. We further show that explanted embryonic tissues expressing wild-type, but not protease-defective, ADAM 13 display decreased cell-matrix adhesion. Purified ADAM 13 can cleave fibronectin, and tissue culture cells that express wild-type, but not protease-defective, ADAM 13 can remodel a fibronectin substrate. Our findings support the hypothesis that the protease activity of ADAM 13 plays a critical role in neural crest-cell migration along defined pathways. We propose that the ADAM 13-dependent modification of ECM and/or other guidance molecules is a key step in the directed migration of the CNC.