Cadherins are a type of cell adhesion molecule that allow for intercellular binding through adherens junctions.
Desmosomes are intercellular binding junctions where you have intermediate filaments of the cytoskeletons of each adjacent cell attached to this desmosome that attaches the two cells together.
Are these just two types of ways cells can adhere? Are desmosomes attached *by* cadherins? (ie., is the protein that is responsible for the cell-to-cell linking within the desmosome actually cadherin?)
If so, do cadherins also act outside of desmosomes?
also, do hemidesmosomes (which connect cells to underlying connective tissue, rather than linking for example cells of the same type together) function the same way, withethe only difference being in the type of the cells being adhered?
Ty for any help - i am trying to get a sense of what's what with these cell adhesion molecules (so far I understand the other ones fairly well):
- integrins - 2 transmembrane domain proteins that attach to extracellular proteins
- immunoglobulin (Ig family) are antibodies that bind to antigens - the antibody is all protein with the variable and constant regions (and made up of light and heavy chains) - but the antigen can be anything really (?)
- selectins - bind to carbohydrate molecules on other cell surfaces (important for immune system. but not the same thing as immunoglobulin/antibodies
I'm trying to find an example where E-cadherin (or other anchoring proteins) is degraded purposefully (and not in a metastatic cancer) that is not in the development of an embryo (e.g Neural crest). Any suggestions are welcome.
Also sorry if this is the wrong subreddit, since I saw that there might be some change for undergrad / question related posts.
