Focal adhesion articles within Nature Materials

Featured

• Article | 18 October 2021

  Microtubules tune mechanosensitive cell responses

  Substrate-rigidity-dependent microtubule acetylation is now shown to be triggered by mechanosensing at focal adhesions, and in turn controls the mechanosensitivity of Yes-associated protein (YAP) translocation, focal adhesion distribution, actomyosin contractility and cell migration.

  • Shailaja Seetharaman
  • , Benoit Vianay
  •  & Sandrine Etienne-Manneville

• News & Views | 27 May 2020

  Syndecan-4 forces integrins to cooperate

  While integrin-based adhesions are thought to underlie many aspects of cell response to localized tension, another matrix receptor, syndecan-4, has now been shown to act as a mechanosensor, which triggers cell-wide integrin activation and adhesion reinforcement.

  • Christophe Guilluy
  •  & Monika E. Dolega

• Article | 06 January 2020

  Syndecan-4 tunes cell mechanics by activating the kindlin-integrin-RhoA pathway

  A mechanism of cell response to localized tension shows that syndecan-4 synergizes with EGFR to elicit a mechanosignalling cascade that leads to adaptive cell stiffening through PI3K/kindlin-2 mediated integrin activation.

  • Antonios Chronopoulos
  • , Stephen D. Thorpe
  •  & Armando E. del Río Hernández

• Article | 03 June 2019

  Traction forces at the cytokinetic ring regulate cell division and polyploidy in the migrating zebrafish epicardium

  The mechanism of cytokinetic failure in the migrating zebrafish epicardium leading to multinucleated cells is shown to be driven by the interaction of the cytokinetic ring and the extracellular matrix through adhesion reinforcement by high traction forces.

  • Marina Uroz
  • , Anna Garcia-Puig
  •  & Xavier Trepat