Trac­tion

For a cell to move, it must adhere to a sub­strate and exert trac­tion. Adhe­sion occurs at spe­cific foci at which the actin cytoskele­ton on the inside of the cell is linked via trans­mem­brane recep­tors (inte­grins) to the extra­cel­lu­lar matrix on the out­side. These adhe­sion sites are com­posed of com­plexes of more than 50 dif­fer­ent pro­teins, includ­ing struc­tural, sig­nal­ing and adap­tor mol­e­cules

Inte­grin based adhe­sions sites link to the actin cytoskele­ton.

Read Chap­ter

The orga­ni­za­tion of the actin cytoskele­ton is con­trolled by mem­bers of the Rho fam­ily of small GTPases.

Read Chap­ter

Adhe­sion for­ma­tion and main­te­nance depends on forces gen­er­ated by the actin cytoskele­ton.

Read Chap­ter

Actin fil­a­ments in lamel­lipo­dia and filopo­dia con­tribute to the con­struc­tion of con­trac­tile arrays for retrac­tion of the cell body.

Read Chap­ter