FIGURE 20-16 Desmosomes. (a) Model of a desmosome between epithelial cells with attachments to the sides of intermediate filaments. The key CAMs in desmosomes are the desmosomal cadherins desmoglein and desmocollin. Adapter proteins bound to the cytoplasmic domains of these cadherins include plakoglobin, desmoplakins, and plakophilins. See B. M. Gumbiner, 1993, Neuron 11:551, and D. R. Garrod, 1993, Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 5:30. (b) Electron micrograph of a thin section of a desmosome connecting two cultured differentiated human keratinocytes. Bundles of intermediate filaments radiate from the two darkly staining cytoplasmic plaques that line the inner surface of the adjacent plasma membranes. Inset: Electron microscopic tomograph of a desmosome linking two human epidermal cells (plasma membranes, pink; desmosomal cadherins, blue; bar, 35 nm).

[Part (b) republished by permission of Nature, from Al-Amoudi, A., et al., “The molecular architecture of cadherins in native epidermal desmosomes,” Nature, 2007, 450:832–837; permission conveyed through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.]