The neural cell spectrin skeleton: a review

Abstract

The discovery of nonerythroid spectrin (Goodman et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 78: 7570-7574, 1981) has generated interest equivalent to that occurring upon the identification of nonmuscle actin and myosin. Brain spectrin has become the best-studied member of the nonerythroid spectrin family of molecules. In this review, we discuss the structure and functional interactions of brain spectrin, as a prelude to attempting to resolve what are some of the more controversial questions in the field. We finish with a discussion of what may be the most profitable directions for future research.