Cell Motility and Adhesion

Cell–cell contact formation, cellular association with the extracellular matrix (ECM) and cell movements within it underlie the apparent, as well as the invisible, spatial and temporal changes associated with much of life’s processes. These processes range from simple resource tropism in unicellular organisms to the complex events involved in the embryonic development of multicellular organisms; they underpin beneficial physiological responses such as wound healing, as well as undesirable pathological episodes exemplified by cancer metastasis. This section of Cells on “Cell Motility and Adhesion” encompasses studies of molecules, events and mechanisms in both intracellular and extracellular contexts, as well as those occurring at the cell–cell and cell–ECM interfaces, using a broad scope of model systems (lower eukaryotes, plants, fungi and metazoans).

This section welcomes manuscripts dealing with relevant topics that include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Cytoskeleton—microtubules, microfilaments and intermediate filaments
• Membrane trafficking, cellular dynamics and interactions of integrins, cell adhesion molecules and ECM components
• Functions and molecular interactions of actin binding proteins, microtubule binding proteins and intermediate filament binding proteins
• Molecular and cellular architecture of cell adhesion complexes and cell junctions
• Cell division
• Signaling processes in cytoskeleton remodeling, cell motility and adhesion
• Cell migration during embryonic and postnatal development
• Cancer cell migration, invasion and metastasis
• Neurite outgrowth and axonal guidance
• Immune synapse formation and function, immune cell migration and extravasation
• Imaging technologies, novel biomaterials and other instrumental/computational advances in studying cell motility and adhesion