Kidney organoids are a high-fidelity system for investigating basement membrane regulation in development and disease.

High-resolution optical microscopy is used to reveal the organization of extracellular matrix proteins within the basement membrane of the blood filtration barrier in the kidney at the nanometer scale.

A Notch-mediated signaling pathway upregulates a Sec14-GOLD phosphopholipid binding protein that promotes a morphogenetic process important in tissue remodeling and renewal.

Collagen IV is a primordial extracellular matrix component associated with the transition to animal multicellularity, and enabled the formation and evolution of epithelial tissues.

Distinct and direct functions of the RNA binding protein SAM68 regulate integrin signaling and focal adhesion dynamics that condition basement membrane deposition and angiogenic behavior of endothelial cells.

The work uncovers a muscle-epidermis-glia signaling axis, modulated by protease mig-17 and the basement membrane, that regulates synaptic allometry during growth in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Excess membrane can trap outgoing extracellular matrix proteins in secreting cells, leading to pericellular deposits that cause tissue damage.

The mutual interaction between the basement membrane protein Multiplexin and the phagocytosis receptor Eater expressed by the immune cells drives the formation and maintenance of the hematopoietic tissues in Drosophila.

Direct measurement of finely patterned mechanical properties in a native basement membrane demonstrate how force asymmetries arising from this extracellular matrix, rather than from cells, can precisely sculpt a tissue.