Eph receptors and ephrins engage in cellular cannibalism.

Eph receptors bind ephrins on neighboring cells, oligomerizing into adhesive complexes that recruit signaling molecules. Execution of their signature repulsive program then generates pulling forces, enabling a cell to engulf a piece of another cell. New mechanistic insights by Gong et al. (2019. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201901032) define this process as a form of "cellular cannibalism."