Fibronectin at a glance

R Pankov, KM Yamada - Journal of cell science, 2002 - journals.biologists.com
Journal of cell science, 2002journals.biologists.com
Fibronectin (FN) mediates a wide variety of cellular interactions with the extracellular matrix
(ECM) and plays important roles in cell adhesion, migration, growth and differentiation
(Mosher, 1989; Carsons, 1989; Hynes, 1990; Yamada and Clark, 1996). FN is widely
expressed by multiple cell types and is critically important in vertebrate development, as
demonstrated by the early embryonic lethality of mice with targeted inactivation of the FN
gene (George et al., 1993). Although FN has been studied for more than two decades, this …
Fibronectin (FN) mediates a wide variety of cellular interactions with the extracellular matrix (ECM) and plays important roles in cell adhesion, migration, growth and differentiation (Mosher, 1989; Carsons, 1989; Hynes, 1990; Yamada and Clark, 1996). FN is widely expressed by multiple cell types and is critically important in vertebrate development, as demonstrated by the early embryonic lethality of mice with targeted inactivation of the FN gene (George et al., 1993). Although FN has been studied for more than two decades, this remarkably complex molecule is still the subject of exciting discoveries, such as finding new integrin-and heparin-binding sites (Mostafavi-Pour et al., 2001; Liao et al., 2002) or even a new form of the molecule (Zhao et al., 2001) that mediates a particular viral infection (Liu and Collodi, 2002).
FN usually exists as a dimer composed of two nearly identical~ 250 kDa subunits linked covalently near their C-termini by a pair of disulfide bonds (see poster). Each monomer consists of three types of repeating units (termed FN repeats): type I (purple rectangles), type II (green octagons) and type III (red
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