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The origins of the molecular era of adhesion research

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 13, pages 805–811 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Recognition of the importance of cell adhesion grew steadily during the twentieth century as it promised answers to fundamental questions in diverse fields that included cell biology, developmental biology, tumorigenesis, immunology and neurobiology. However, the route towards a better understanding of its molecular basis was long and difficult, with many false starts. Major progress was made in the late 1970s to late 1980s with the identification of the major families of adhesion molecules, including integrins and cadherins. This in turn set the stage for the explosive growth in adhesion research over the past 25 years.

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Figure 1: Early observations that adhesion mediates tissue association in invertebrates.
Figure 2: Experimental strategies that allowed the identification of adhesion molecules.
Figure 3: Localization of the adhesion component vinculin using fluorescence microscopy.
Figure 4: Participants in the 1987 Fibronectin Gordon Research Conference.

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Acknowledgements

The scope, brevity and nature of the perspective format preclude presenting all of the important contributions and citations; the author apologizes to his colleagues for these omissions. He thanks D. DeSimone, M.Schwartz, R. Hynes and B. Gumbiner for their suggestions. A.R.H. was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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  1. Alan Rick Horwitz is at the Department of Cell Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908, USA. Horwitz@virginia.edu,

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41580_2012_BFnrm3473_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Supplementary Information S1 (figure) | The participant list of the Fibronectin Gordon Research Conference in 1987. (PDF 259 kb)

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Horwitz, A. The origins of the molecular era of adhesion research. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 13, 805–811 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm3473

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