Integrins anchor the invasive machinery.
Cell invasion through the basement membrane, a process important for both development and disease pathogenesis, depends on an interplay of adhesive, force transducing, proteolytic, and chemotactic machineries. The mechanisms whereby these different processes are integrated on the cellular level have remained elusive. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Sherwood and coworkers now identify integrins as integration platforms for a specialized invasive membrane domain in C. elegans.
Wickström
Sara A
SA
Department of Molecular Medicine, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried 82152, Germany.
Fässler
Reinhard
R
D000818:Animals; D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000378:metabolism*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000378:metabolism; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D016023:Integrins / Q000378:metabolism*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology
D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; D016023:Integrins; C102174:UNC-40 protein, C elegans