title: Integrins: bidirectional, allosteric signaling machines.
abstract: In their roles as major adhesion receptors, integrins signal across the plasma membrane in both directions. Recent structural and cell biological data suggest models for how integrins transmit signals between their extracellular ligand binding adhesion sites and their cytoplasmic domains, which link to the cytoskeleton and to signal transduction pathways. Long-range conformational changes couple these functions via allosteric equilibria.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Cancer Research, Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. rohynes@mit.edu
authors.forename: Richard O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Hynes
mesh_terms: D000494:Allosteric Regulation; D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000502:physiology; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000502:physiology; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000502:physiology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016023:Integrins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D015394:Molecular Structure; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; D016023:Integrins