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Updated: May 28, 2026

In Vitro Polymerization of F-actin on Early Endosomes
Published on: August 28, 2017
FAK is required for the assembly of podosome rosettes
Yi-Ru Pan1, Chien-Lin Chen, Hong-Chen Chen
1Department of Life Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan.
Abstract:
Podosomes are dynamic actin-enriched membrane structures that play an important role in invasive cell motility and extracellular matrix degradation. They are often found to assemble into large rosettelike structures in highly invasive cells. However, the mechanism of this assembly remains obscure. In this study, we identified focal adhesion kinase (FAK) as a key molecule necessary for assembly. Moreover, phosphorylation of p130Cas and suppression of Rho signaling by FAK were found to be important for FAK to induce the assembly of podosome rosettes. Finally, we found that suppression of vimentin intermediate filaments by FAK facilitates the assembly of podosome rosettes. Collectively, our results strongly suggest a link between FAK, podosome rosettes, and tumor invasion and unveil a negative role for Rho signaling and vimentin filaments in podosome rosette assembly.
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