Figure 1.

Signaling through cell-ECM adhesions. Integrin-mediated cell-ECM adhesion elicits a plethora of changes at the adhesion sites. Changes that are critical for transduction of signals through cell-ECM adhesions include (1) protein phosphorylation, (2) recruitment of protein complexes, and (3) force-induced protein conformational changes. Proteins depicted in the figure represent examples of these signaling events rather than an inclusive survey. For detailed discussion of integrin-mediated signal transduction, readers are encouraged to read (Refs. ¹–¹²).