This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Cell migration and morphogenesis are essential for the development, growth, and survival of metazoans, and these processes are also at play in pathophysiological scenarios such as cancer metastasis and myopathies. These events rely on the cell?s ability to dynamically form and break specific contacts, coined adhesion junctions, with its neighbors (adherens junctions) or the extracellular matrix (focal adhesions). Vinculin is an essential regulator of both cell-cell (cadherin-catenin mediated) and cell-matrix (integrin-talin mediated) junctions, where it provides links to the actin cytoskeleton by binding to talin in integrin complexes, or to -catenin and -actinin in cadherin junctions. To understand the molecular details of the dynamics in adhesion complexes, we will solve the crystal structures of several proteins involved in cell adhesion in complex with their binding partners.
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