Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Fundamental Technical Elements of Freeze-fracture/Freeze-etch in Biological Electron Microscopy
Published on: September 11, 2014
The cytoplasmic plaque of tight junctions: a scaffolding and signalling center
Laurent Guillemot1, Serge Paschoud, Pamela Pulimeno
1Department of Molecular Biology, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Abstract:
The region of cytoplasm underlying the tight junction (TJ) contains several multimolecular protein complexes, which are involved in scaffolding of membrane proteins, regulation of cytoskeletal organization, establishment of polarity, and signalling to and from the nucleus. In this review, we summarize some of the most recent advances in understanding the identity of these proteins, their domain organization, their protein interactions, and their functions in vertebrate organisms. Analysis of knockdown and knockout model systems shows that several TJ proteins are essential for the formation of epithelial tissues and early embryonic development, whereas others appear to have redundant functions.
Related Concept Videos
Tight Junctions
Anchoring Junctions
Intracellular Signaling Affects Focal Adhesions
Some...
Assembly of Signaling Complexes
Interaction domains in cell signaling
Interaction domains recognize exposed features of their binding partners containing post-translationally modified sequences,...
Overview of Cell-Cell Junctions
Occluding or Tight Junctions
Tight...
Overview of Cell-Cell Junctions
Occluding or Tight Junctions
Tight...

