Recent advancements in the understanding of tetraspanin functions

Excerpt

The spatiotemporal coordination of transmembrane proteins plays an important role in an exceptionally wide range of cellular activities, including in all steps of pathogen infection as well as immunological processes. Tetraspanin proteins are the master organizers of membrane proteins, and are therefore involved in physiological and pathophysiological processes, as presented in this special issue “Tetraspanins in Infection and Immunity”. These transmembrane proteins span the membrane four times and form extended subdomains by means of their strong tendency to associate laterally with one another and with different classes of proteins, such as cell surface receptors, immunoglobulins, adhesion and signalling molecules, and proteases [1]. As such, they anchor specific proteins to one site on the cell membrane forming microclusters that then further organize into larger assemblies, the so-called tetraspanin-enriched microdomains. These microdomains enable membrane dynamics, like endocytosis, recycling, exocytosis, cell motility, fusion and signalling. The role of tetraspanins in cell fusion, for example, is described in mammalian reproductive processes and development [2]. …