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Review

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 1, 31–39 (1 October 2000) | doi:10.1038/35036052

Lipid rafts and signal transduction

Kai Simons & Derek Toomre

Signal transduction is initiated by complex protein–protein interactions between ligands, receptors and kinases, to name only a few. It is now becoming clear that lipid micro-environments on the cell surface — known as lipid rafts — also take part in this process. Lipid rafts containing a given set of proteins can change their size and composition in response to intra- or extracellular stimuli. This favours specific protein–protein interactions, resulting in the activation of signalling cascades.