Figure 1

Schematic representation of the classical cadherin-catenin complex. Classical cadherins (blue), which mediate calcium-dependent (red) intercellular adhesion, are composed by an extracellular domain, a transmembrane domain and a cytoplasmic domain. This last domain comprises a juxtamembrane domain (JMD), which binds p120-catenin (violet), and a catenin-binding domain (CBD), which binds β-catenin (green), which in turns binds α-catenin (orange). Both α-catenin, α-actinin (grey) and vinculin (pink) establish a direct link between the cadherin-catenin complex and the actin cytoskeleton (yellow).