Focal adhesion articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    PI3 kinase is known to promote cell migration through its catalytic activity. Here, the authors show that the kinase also induces endocytosis through a non-catalytic pathway that actually decreases migratory speed and persistence, revealing a more subtle regulation of motility.

    • Hideaki T. Matsubayashi
    • , Jack Mountain
    •  & Takanari Inoue

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Focal adhesions are dynamic structures that link the cell to the extracellular matrix. Here, the authors report that focal adhesions contain tropomyosin-decorated actin filaments, and show evidence that suggests specific functions in adhesion dynamics and cell migration.

    • Reena Kumari
    • , Katharina Ven
    •  & Pekka Lappalainen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cells employ integrin-based adhesions with different molecular compositions to adhere to substrates. Here, the authors show that so-called “non-canonical” adhesions lacking focal adhesion components can convert to focal adhesions (and vice versa), through the selective exchange of components.

    • Fabian Lukas
    • , Claudia Matthaeus
    •  & Tanja Maritzen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vinculin binding to talin is a key event in focal adhesion dynamics; yet, how vinculin is activated to recruit actin remains unknown. Here, the authors use a multiscale approach to reveal that talin activates vinculin through an intricate allosteric mechanism tightly regulated by force.

    • Florian Franz
    • , Rafael Tapia-Rojo
    •  & Frauke Gräter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    YAP signaling has been established as a mechanotransductive pathway in multiple contexts, but its developmental roles are still being explored. Here they show that YAP signaling sustains intracellular tension to direct cell migration during embryonic axis assembly.

    • Ana Sousa-Ortega
    • , Javier Vázquez-Marín
    •  & Juan R. Martínez-Morales

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cellular adhesions have the remarkable property that they adapt their stability to the applied mechanical load. Here, authors describe a generic physical mechanism that explains self-stabilization of idealized adhesion systems under shear.

    • Andrea Braeutigam
    • , Ahmet Nihat Simsek
    •  & Benedikt Sabass

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The way in which metastatic tumour cells control endocytic vesicular trafficking networks to establish a front-rear polarity axis that facilitates motility remains unclear. Here, the authors show that the EMT activator ZEB1 influences vesicular trafficking dynamics to execute cell polarity change.

    • Priyam Banerjee
    • , Guan-Yu Xiao
    •  & Jonathan M. Kurie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Focal adhesions (FAs) initiate chemical and mechanical signals involved in cell polarity, migration, proliferation and differentiation. Here, authors combine single protein tracking, super-resolution microscopy and functional assays, which allow correlating the molecular behaviour and 3D nanoscale localization of kindlin with its function in integrin activation inside FAs.

    • Thomas Orré
    • , Adrien Joly
    •  & Grégory Giannone

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The absence of scaffold protein Ambra1 leads to hyperproliferation and growth in mouse models. Here the authors show that Ambra1 deficiency accelerates melanoma growth and increases metastasis in mouse models of melanoma through FAK1 hyperactivation.

    • Luca Di Leo
    • , Valérie Bodemeyer
    •  & Francesco Cecconi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single-molecule localisation microscopy is limited by low labeling and detection efficiencies of the molecular probes. Here the authors report a framework to obtain absolute molecular quantities on a true molecular scale; the data reveal a ternary adhesion complex underlying cell-matrix adhesion.

    • Lisa S. Fischer
    • , Christoph Klingner
    •  & Carsten Grashoff

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of the transmembrane glycoprotein CD47 in healing injured intestinal mucosa is unclear. Here, the authors show that selective loss of CD47 in the murine intestinal epithelium results in defective mucosal repair after colonic wounding, with suggested impaired cell migration in vitro.

    • Michelle Reed
    • , Anny-Claude Luissint
    •  & Charles A. Parkos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pluripotent stem cell colonies are encircled by large cornerstone focal adhesions (FAs). Here, using super-resolution imaging, the authors describe features in the nanoscale makeup of these stable FAs such as inverted vinculin, lateral talin segregation and distinct kank protein distributions.

    • Aki Stubb
    • , Camilo Guzmán
    •  & Johanna Ivaska

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How cells migrate in fibrous tissues is still poorly understood. Here, with synthetic 3D fibre matrices of controlled alignment and stiffness, the authors report that cells in stiff matrices move slowly and continuously, but in softer, deformable matrices cells can rapidly slingshot forward via stretch and recoil of matrix fibres.

    • William Y. Wang
    • , Christopher D. Davidson
    •  & Brendon M. Baker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechano-properties of the Extracellular Matrix (ECM) are important for tumorigenesis. Here, the authors show that the stiffening of the ECM promotes translocation of the focal adhesion protein—Kindlin-2—to the mitochondria, where it interacts with the proline synthesis enzyme PYCR1, stimulating proline synthesis and cell proliferation.

    • Ling Guo
    • , Chunhong Cui
    •  & Chuanyue Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cellular ERK activation occurs as discrete pulses but their relationship to upstream Ras signaling is still under debate. Here, the authors show that Ras signaling associated with cellular protrusions triggers pulsed ERK activation, thereby enabling cells to integrate chemical and mechanical stimuli.

    • Jr-Ming Yang
    • , Sayak Bhattacharya
    •  & Chuan-Hsiang Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pseudokinase ILK is essential for dynamic communication between focal adhesion complexes and F-actin filaments. Here, the authors show that ILK regulates such communication by complexing with PINCH and Parvin to trigger F-actin filament bundling through previously unrecognized actin binding motifs in PINCH and Parvin

    • Julia Vaynberg
    • , Koichi Fukuda
    •  & Jun Qin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Purely elastic biomimetic soft materials are used to characterize the mechanical response of cells, but do not resemble real tissues. Here the authors develop a viscoelastic solid hydrogel, based on polyacrylamide, that can be tuned to closely resemble soft tissue, and show the influence of viscous dissipation on cellular mechanical sensing.

    • Elisabeth E. Charrier
    • , Katarzyna Pogoda
    •  & Paul A. Janmey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The transcriptional co-activator YAP is known to operate downstream of mechanical signals arising from the cell niche. Here the authors demonstrate that YAP controls cell mechanics, force development and adhesion strength by promoting the transcription of genes related to focal adhesions.

    • Giorgia Nardone
    • , Jorge Oliver-De La Cruz
    •  & Giancarlo Forte

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Contact guidance on aligned substrates leads to directed cell migration through a poorly defined mechanism. Here the authors show that alignment of adhesion structures and F-actin generates anisotropic traction stress to drive directional migration, and cell-cell contact reduces force orientation and directional response.

    • Arja Ray
    • , Oscar Lee
    •  & Paolo P. Provenzano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Live cell super-resolution imaging requires a high temporal resolution, which remains a challenge. Here the authors combine photo-activated localization microscopy (PALM) with super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (SOFI) to achieve high spatiotemporal resolution and quantitative imaging of focal adhesion dynamics.

    • Hendrik Deschout
    • , Tomas Lukes
    •  & Aleksandra Radenovic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although focal adhesions (FAs) and microtubules (MTs) are known to associate, the underlying regulation of this dynamic interaction is not understood. Here the authors discover that the CRL3KLHL21E3 ubiquitin ligase localises to FAs and ubiquitinates the MT plus-tip binding protein EB1, thereby promoting MT and FA dynamics and cell migration.

    • Thibault Courtheoux
    • , Radoslav I. Enchev
    •  & Matthias Peter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The spectraplakin protein ACF7 binds to actin at focal adhesions and targets microtubule plus ends to focal adhesions, promoting their disassembly. Here the authors reveal that ACF7 is phosphorylated by Src/FAK, and this regulates actin binding and focal adhesion dynamics in vitro and in vivo.

    • Jiping Yue
    • , Yao Zhang
    •  & Xiaoyang Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cadherins are typically involved in cell-cell adhesion, however cadherin-11 promotes cell migration through an undefined mechanism. Langhe et al.show that cadherin-11 mediates adhesion to the cell matrix at focal adhesions through interaction with syndecan-4.

    • Rahul P. Langhe
    • , Tetyana Gudzenko
    •  & Jubin Kashef

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Signalling is often fine-tuned by the exo-endocytic cycling of cell surface receptors. Here, the authors show that the endocytic adaptor protein Stonin1 is important for the endocytosis of NG2, a co-receptor for extracellular matrix and growth factors, and that loss of Stonin1 alters cell motility.

    • Fabian Feutlinske
    • , Marietta Browarski
    •  & Tanja Maritzen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How cells maintain directional polarity when migrating through a complex environment is not well understood. Here Sung et al. show that autocrine exosome secretion is required for persistent and efficient in vivocancer cell motility and promotes assembly of adhesion complexes by delivering fibronectin-bound exosomes.

    • Bong Hwan Sung
    • , Tatiana Ketova
    •  & Alissa M. Weaver

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The proteoglycan Agrin is known to be expressed in neurons and muscle and to bind ECM protein laminin. Here the authors report that Agrin promotes hepatocellular carcinoma by stimulating proliferation, decreasing focal adhesion, increasing invasiveness and promoting an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.

    • Sayan Chakraborty
    • , Manikandan Lakshmanan
    •  & Wanjin Hong

  • Article |

    Arp2/3 is a seven-subunit actin-nucleating complex. Here, Chorev et al.identify a novel ‘hybrid complex’ consisting of the actin-nucleating three-subunit core of Arp2/3 and the focal adhesion adapter, vinculin, that localizes to, and modulates the growth of, focal adhesions.

    • Dror S. Chorev
    • , Oren Moscovitz
    •  & Michal Sharon

Browse broader subjects

Browse Focal adhesion across other nature.com journals