Making heads and tails of intermediate filament assembly, dynamics and networks

Thus far, intermediate filaments (IFs) have been the least understood of the three cytoskeletal filament systems with regard to their structure, assembly, network formation, and dynamics. This picture is now slowly but definitely changing, as recent in vivo and in vitro experiments, including generation of transgenic animals, have yielded important new data shedding light on the following areas: the molecular architecture of IFs; the role of the highly variable end domains during IF assembly and network formation; the factors that govern whether IF proteins are involved in de novo filament formation or are incorporated into a pre-existing IF network; and the effects of post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation and glycosylation of IF polypeptides, on filament assembly, dynamics and turnover.