Membrane tension drives ligand-independent integrin signaling

Integrins anchor cells to the extracellular matrix (ECM) and control a multitude of essential cellular functions by activating a variety of signaling pathways. In this issue of The EMBO Journal, a study conducted by Ferraris and colleagues report that binding of urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) to vitronectin is sufficient to trigger ligand-independent 1 and 3 integrin signaling. The coupling of uPAR and integrins occurs independent of lateral interaction between the two receptors, but relies on membrane tension (Ferraris etal, ).