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Figure 1


Fig. 1. Focal adhesions provide both a structural and a signaling link between the ECM and the actin cytoskeleton. The adhesion of a cell to the ECM, via transmembrane {alpha}β-integrin heterodimers, leads to integrin activation and the recruitment of numerous intracellular proteins to the plasma membrane. Focal adhesions are now known to comprise over 125 protein species (only selected examples are depicted), which include both structural proteins (which mediate a physical link to the actin cytoskeleton) and regulatory proteins (which have a major role in the modulation of actin dynamics for productive cell migration). Proteins such as paxillin serve as scaffold proteins to facilitate the functional integration of these different categories of focal-adhesion proteins.





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