Hold on Tight

Like Spider-Man crawling up a wall, when cells move across a surface, they hold on tight. Not with a spidery grip but with structures called focal adhesions. A key part of focal adhesions are the proteins α5β1 and αvβ3 integrins. They span a cell’s membrane, providing a bridge between the environment outside a cell and a cell’s internal structures. Researchers now investigate these integrins at a nanoscale level using dual-color super-resolution cell microscopy (pictured). They find α5β1 (magenta) and αvβ3 integrins are organised into separate nanoclusters in focal adhesions (green), along with nanoclusters of adaptor proteins that help integrins connect to a cell’s internal scaffolding. While α5β1 was clustered at the edge of focal adhesions close to adaptor proteins, αvβ3 nanoclusters spread uniformly throughout them. Getting integrins organised at the nanoscale levels is, therefore, important for cell attachment and mobility.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image from work by Sarah Keary and colleagues
• ICFO – Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain, ICREA, Barcelona, Spain
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife (reviewed preprint), April 2025