Filamin: a structural and functional biomolecule with important roles in cell biology, signaling and mechanics.

Abstract

Focal adhesions are the immediate sites of the cell's adhesive interaction with the extracellular matrix and as such play a key role in mechanosensing and mechanotransduction at the edge of the cell interface with its surrounding microenvironment. A multitude of proteins orchestrate this mechanochemical communication process between the cell and its outside world. Filamin is a member of focal adhesion protein machinery that also plays a key role in regulating and bundling the acting filament network. A brief review is presented here on filamin and its important protein partners with the aim to shed light on the role of filamin's protein-protein interaction network in cell mechanobiology.