Lattices, rafts, and scaffolds: domain regulation of receptor signaling at the plasma membrane

The plasma membrane is organized into various sub-domains of clustered macromolecules. Such domains include adhesive structures (cellular synapses, substrate adhesions, and cell-cell junctions) and membrane invaginations (clathrin-coated pits and caveolae), as well as less well-defined domains such as lipid rafts and lectin-glycoprotein lattices. Domains are organized by specialized scaffold proteins including the intramembranous caveolins, which stabilize lipid raft domains, and the galectins, a family of animal lectins that cross-link glycoproteins forming molecular lattices. We review evidence that these heterogeneous microdomains interact to regulate substratum adhesion and cytokine receptor dynamics at the cell surface.