Integrin-mediated adhesion complex: Cooption of signaling systems at the dawn of Metazoa

The integrin-mediated adhesion machinery is the primary cell-matrix adhesion mechanism in Metazoa. The integrin adhesion complex, which modulates important aspects of the cell physiology, is composed of integrins (alpha and beta subunits) and several scaffolding and signaling proteins. Integrins appeared to be absent in all non-metazoan eukaryotes so-far analyzed, including fungi, plants and choanoflagellates, the sister-group to Metazoa. Thus, integrins and, therefore, the integrin-mediated adhesion and signaling mechanism was considered a metazoan innovation. Recently, a broad comparative genomic analysis including new genome data from several unicellular organisms closely related to fungi and metazoans shattered previous views. The integrin adhesion and signaling complex is not specific to Metazoa, but rather it is present in apusozoans and holozoan protists. Thus, this important signaling and adhesion system predated the origin of Fungi and Metazoa, and was subsequently lost in fungi and choanoflagellates. This finding suggests that cooption played a more important role in the origin of Metazoa than previously believed. Here, we hypothesize that the integrin adhesome was ancestrally involved in signaling.