Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0001511 (Adhesion)
 5,955 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Mechanosensing at focal adhesions regulates vital cellular processes. Here, we present results from molecular dynamics (MD) and mechano-biochemical network simulations that suggest a direct role of Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) as a mechano-sensor. Tensile forces, propagating from the membrane through the PIP2 binding site of the FERM domain and from the cytoskeleton-anchored FAT domain, activate FAK by unlocking its central phosphorylation site (Tyr576/577) from the autoinhibitory FERM domain. Varying loading rates, pulling directions, and membrane PIP2 concentrations corroborate the specific opening of the FERM-kinase domain interface, due to its remarkably lower mechanical stability compared to the individual alpha-helical domains and the PIP2-FERM link. Analyzing downstream signaling networks provides further evidence for an intrinsic mechano-signaling role of FAK in broadcasting force signals through Ras to the nucleus. This distinguishes FAK from hitherto identified focal adhesion mechano-responsive molecules, allowing a new interpretation of cell stretching experiments.
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PMID:Mechanism of Focal Adhesion Kinase Mechanosensing. 2654 78

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) play a major role in various cellular functions ranging from transcription to cell migration. Mutations/modifications in such IDPs are shown to be associated with various diseases. Current strategies to study the mode of action and regulatory mechanisms of disordered proteins at the structural level are time consuming and challenging. Therefore, using simple and swift strategies for identifying functionally important regions in unstructured segments and understanding their underlying mechanisms is critical for many applications. Here we propose a simple strategy that employs dissection of human paxillin (residues 1-313) that comprises intrinsically disordered regions, followed by its interaction study using FAT (Focal adhesion targeting domain of focal adhesion kinase) as its binding partner to retrace structural behavior. Our findings show that the paxillin interaction with FAT exhibits a masking and unmasking effect by a putative intra-molecular regulatory region. This phenomenon suggests how cancer associated mutations in paxillin affect its interactions with Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK). The strategy could be used to decipher the mode of regulations and identify functionally relevant constructs for other studies.
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PMID:Deciphering Mode of Action of Functionally Important Regions in the Intrinsically Disordered Paxillin (Residues 1-313) Using Its Interaction with FAT (Focal Adhesion Targeting Domain of Focal Adhesion Kinase). 2692 67