The actin cytoskeleton is a malleable framework of polymerised actin monomers that may be rapidly restructured to enable diverse cellular activities such as motility, endocytosis and cytokinesis. The regulation of actin dynamics involves the coordinated activity of numerous proteins, among which members of the annexin family of Ca2+- and phospholipid-binding proteins play an important role. Although the roles of annexins in actin dynamics are not understood at a mechanistic level, annexins have the requisite properties to integrate Ca2+-signaling with actin dynamics at membrane contact sites. In this review we discuss the current state of knowledge on this topic, and consider how and where annexins may fit into the complex molecular machinery that regulates the actin cytoskeleton.
Copyright 2004 Blackwell Munksgaard