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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

nectin, xyxin localization, cancer metastasis

College

Life Sciences

Department

Physiology and Developmental Biology

Abstract

A major difficulty of treating cancer rises from its ability to metastasize. During metastasis, strong adhesions between cells break, allowing individual cells to separate and migrate to different locations in the body. Strong cell-cell junctions are formed by protein interactions between actin cables and cell junction proteins. Zyxin is an actin regulator that localizes at cadherin-based cell-cell adhesions. Our lab has shown that cells expressing constitutively active forms of zyxin lose the ability to completely detach from each other, a result of maintained actin-membrane associations. How zyxin is localized to the cell membrane is unknown. Given zyxin’s role in maintaining cell-cell adhesions, understanding the molecular basis of this function could provide new insight into how cells initiate metastasis. Based on previous research in our lab, we have proposed a role for nectin in localizing zyxin to cell-cell adhesions. We have carried out many experiments and gathered data that has required us to significantly change our approach.

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