The spectraplakins of Caenorhabditis elegans: Cytoskeletal crosslinkers and beyond.

Spectraplakins are evolutionary conserved cytolinkers with characteristics of both the spectrin and the plakin family proteins. Caenorhabditis elegans possesses two categories of spectraplakin isoforms encoded by a single locus termed vab-10. Here we summarize the structure, homology, expression and functions of these spectraplakin family proteins in the nematode. We particularly focus on the diverse roles of VAB-10 isoforms in a number of organs and tissue types, as well as the similarities and distinctions of the underlying mechanisms. We also discuss the functional partners of VAB-10 in different contexts, plus the involvement of VAB-10 isoforms in physiological processes beyond cytoskeletal integration. We emphasize the importance of spectraplakin-related studies using Caenorhabditis elegans as the model, and their contributions to our understanding of spectraplakins across species.