NFAT signaling: choreographing the social lives of cells

Abstract

Calcium signaling activates the phosphatase calcineurin and induces movement of NFATc proteins into the nucleus, where they cooperate with other proteins to form complexes on DNA. Nuclear import is opposed by kinases such as GSK3, thereby rendering transcription continuously responsive to receptor occupancy. Disruptions of the genes involved in NFAT signaling are implicating this pathway as a regulator of developmental cell-cell interactions.