Focal Adhesions

Electron microscopy of focal adhesions. Transmission electron microscope image of a chicken lens cultured cell. Black arrow indicates cell-surface adhesion. Image adapted from Medalia and Geiger, 2010.

In a long series of studies, the Geiger laboratory and collaborators addressed diverse features of focal adhesions – a dynamic, mechanosensitive integrin-mediated adhesion structure addressing, (among others) the following topics:

  • Integrin-specific diversity (See figure below)
  • Sensing the nanostructure of the underlying surface
  • Internal molecular organization, using cryo-electron tomography

 

Adhesions mediated via different integrins induce the assembly of morphologically distinct focal adhesions. The molecular composition of the ECM (here, glass surfaces were coated with fibronectin or vitronectin) and the cellular interaction with these matrices via different integrins (α5β1  and αvβ3, respectively) lead to the formation of focal adhesions with distinct morphology, size and subcellular distribution.

  • The interplay between different integrin adhesions
  • Focal adhesions and mechanosensitivity
  • Molecular dynamics of FA components
  • FAs and their activity as signaling organelles
  • The adhesome molecular organization and diversity

Key collaborations: Zvi Kam, Ohad Medalia, Sasha Bershadsky, Vic Small. Joachim Spatz, Frauke Greater,

Selected Publications

  1. Geiger B., Boujemaa-Paterski R., Winograd-Katz S.E., Balan Venghateri J., Chung W.L., Medalia O. The actin network interfacing integrin-mediated adhesions. Biomolecules. 13(2):294 (2023)  
  2. Li W., Chung W.L., Kozlov M.M., Medalia O., Geiger B. and Bershadsky A. Chiral growth of adherent filopodia. Biophy.J. 122(18):3704-3721 (2023)
    * Pre-publication in bioRxiv.
  3. Franz F., Tapia-Rojo R., Winograd-Katz S., Li W., Boujemaa-Paterski R., Unger T., Albeck S., Aponte-Santamaria C., Garcia-Manyes S., Medalia O., Geiger B., Gräter F. How talin allosterically activates vinculin. bioRxiv. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.01.502287 (2022)
  4. Chung W-L., Eibauer M., Boujemaa-Paterski R., Li W., Geiger B. and Medalia O. A network of mixed actin polarity in the lamellipodium of spreading cells.
    Journal of Cell Biology (2022)
  5. Geiger B., Livne A. And Grosheva I. Cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix. In: Ralph A. Bradshaw and Philip D. Stahl (Editors-in-Chief), Encyclopedia of Cell Biology, Vol. 2, Waltham, MA, USA: Academic Press, pp. 713-719 (2022)  
  6. Li W., Erkizia A., Groll J., Zick Y., Bershadsky A., Geiger B. Differential cellular responses to adhesive interactions with galectin-8 and fibronectin coated substrates. bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.14.127076 (2020)  
  7. Chorev DS, Volberg T, Livne A, Eisenstein M, Martins B, Kam Z, Jockusch BM, Medalia O, Sharon M, Geiger, B. Conformational states during vinculin unlocking differentially regulate focal adhesion properties. Sci Rep 8 (1):2693 (2018) * Pre-publication in bioRxiv  
  8. Pallarola D, Platzman I, Bochen A, Cavalcanti-Adam EA, Auxmann M, Kessler H, Geiger B, and Spatz JP. Focal adhesion stabilization by enhanced integrin-cRGD binding affinity. BioNanoMat 18 (1-2) (2017)
  9. Livne A and Geiger B. The inner workings of stress fibers – from contractile machinery to focal adhesions and back. J Cell Science 129(7): 1293-1304 (2016)