Fig. 8.

Model of the complementary roles of ROCK and JNK in gut elongation. Rho activates actomyosin-based contractility via Rho kinase (ROCK) to generate tension and remodel cadherin-based cell-cell adhesive contacts, leading to the radial reorganization of the gut endoderm (blue arrows). By contrast, JNK signaling stabilizes cell-cell adhesion, either directly and/or via its effects on microtubule architecture (red arrows), to maintain structural integrity during endoderm rearrangement. Both pathways must be coordinated in space and time, within and between cells, to control cell intercalation events in order to achieve anisotropic tissue extension to elongate the gut tube. See text for further details.