Journal
JOURNAL OF CELL SCIENCE
Volume 125, Issue 13, Pages 3025-3038Publisher
COMPANY OF BIOLOGISTS LTD
DOI: 10.1242/jcs.095794
Keywords
Cell adhesion; Cytoskeleton; Mechanotransduction
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Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [BFU2011-23111]
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From the extracellular matrix to the cytoskeleton, a network of molecular links connects cells to their environment. Molecules in this network transmit and detect mechanical forces, which subsequently determine cell behavior and fate. Here, we reconstruct the mechanical pathway followed by these forces. From matrix proteins to actin through integrins and adaptor proteins, we review how forces affect the lifetime of bonds and stretch or alter the conformation of proteins, and how these mechanical changes are converted into biochemical signals in mechanotransduction events. We evaluate which of the proteins in the network can participate in mechanotransduction and which are simply responsible for transmitting forces in a dynamic network. Besides their individual properties, we also analyze how the mechanical responses of a protein are determined by their serial connections from the matrix to actin, their parallel connections in integrin clusters and by the rate at which force is applied to them. All these define mechanical molecular pathways in cells, which are emerging as key regulators of cell function alongside better studied biochemical pathways.
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