Nuclear-cytoplasmic shuttling of the focal contact protein, zyxin: a potential mechanism for communication between sites of cell adhesion and the nucleus

Integrin-dependent cell adhesion to specific extracellular matrix molecules has been demonstrated to trigger dramatic changes in gene expression that can affect cell fate. However, little is understood about the molecular mechanism by which events at sites of cell-substratum adhesion are communicated to the cell interior to regulate the transcriptional apparatus. By analogy to classical mechanisms of cell surface receptor function, it seems likely that some components of the integrin-activated signal transduction machinery will be colocalized with cell adhesion molecules