Maintaining proper cell-cell adhesion in the intestine is essential for tissue 
homeostasis and barrier function. This adhesion is thought to be mediated by 
cell adhesion structures, including tight junctions, adherens junctions, and 
desmosomes, which concentrate in the apical junctional region. While clear roles 
for adherens and tight junctions have been established in simple epithelia, the 
function of desmosomes has not been addressed. In stratified epithelia, 
desmosomes impart mechanical strength to tissues by organizing and anchoring the 
keratin filament network. In this paper, we report that the desmosomal protein 
desmoplakin (DP) is not essential for cell adhesion in the intestinal 
epithelium. Surprisingly, when DP is lacking, keratin filament localization is 
also unperturbed, although keratin filaments no longer anchor at desmosomes. 
Unexpectedly, DP is important for proper microvillus structure. Our study 
highlights the tissue-specific functions of desmosomes and reveals that the 
canonical functions for these structures are not conserved in simple epithelium.