The plasma membrane acts as both a boundary and a site of exchange between the outside and the inside of a cell. The cytoskeleton plays essential roles in delineating membrane protein distributions, in defining structural and functional domains in the plasma membrane, and in regulating membrane protein, and ultimately, cell function. This volume reviews the regulation of membrane protein distribution, organization, and function at the plasma membrane by the cytoskeleton. Discussions also include the roles of cytoskeleton in the structural and functional organization of membranes and membrane proteins with emphasis on key problems, the current status of understanding, experimental approaches, and future directions.

The mammalian cytoskeleton is an internal framework of actin, tubulin, and intermediate filament proteins. Proteins of these three classes assemble non-covalently into filamentous polymers that support the structural integrity of the relatively fragile lipid plasma membrane. In addition, cytoskeletal polymers provide the mechanical strength that hold a cell together and anchor it to its growth substrate. The cytoskeleton must also have the capacity for rapid and substantial remodeling and provide the motive and tractor force necessary to drive motility. As such, the cytoskeleton has a functional duality: sufficiently rigid to prevent plasma membrane deformation but pliable enough to allow for cytokinesis; sufficiently adhesive to allow for traction but dynamic enough to allow movement from one place to another. A major research challenge in cytoskeleton biology is to understand how cytoskeletal proteins assemble and dissemble in support of physiological processes. This chapter will focus on the role of the actin cytoskeleton in cell migration. More specifically, we will focus on the actin cytoskeleton of vertebrate cells. Table of Contents: Introduction / The Fundamentals of Actin Polymerization / Accessory Proteins Regulate Actin Polymerization and Assembly / Cellular Actin Structure / Cell Migration / Summary of Cell Migration / References / Author Biography

The cytoskeleton is a highly dynamic intracellular platform constituted by a three-dimensional network of proteins responsible for key cellular roles as structure and shape, cell growth and development, and offering to the cell with "motility" that being the ability of the entire cell to move and for material to be moved within the cell in a regulated fashion (vesicle trafficking). The present edition of Cytoskeleton provides new insights into the structure-functional features, dynamics, and cytoskeleton's relationship to diseases. The authors' contribution in this book will be of substantial importance to a wide audience such as clinicians, researches, educators, and students interested in getting updated knowledge about molecular basis of cytoskeleton, such as regulation of cell vital processes by actin-binding proteins as cell morphogenesis, motility, their implications in cell signaling, as well as strategies for clinical trial and alternative therapies based in multitargeting molecules to tackle diseases, that is, cancer.