This is a dual color image of a cell stained for integrins (see below) green and actin in red. The yellow color is where the two overlap.
Near and dear to my heart, the focal adhesion. The interface between the actin cytoskeleton and the extra cellular matrix, ECM, (plastic tissue culture dish or the neighboring cell--but called a CAM [cell adhesion molecule], is an important component of signal transduction of how the cell senses it's environment and how it reacts. If a cell does not attach to the ECM within around 15 minutes, it will apoptose. The places where it attaches to the surface of it's substrate, focal adhesion, has specific receptors termed integrins. The cell uses these interactions to determine it's environment and has a lot of signaling molecules around--[ see tyrosine phosphorylation from an earlier post] thus making this contact point a very important initiator of signaling.
A point to be made is that focal adhesions are an artifact of tissue culture. Cells are in a 3D dimension in the body and 2D in culture. I think i'm in the middle here. A ton of signal transduction/oncogene discovery has been accomplished, along with general cell biology from focal adhesion studies in vitro[ in tissue culture].
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