Emerging properties of adhesion complexes: what are they and what do they do?

The regulation of cell adhesion machinery is central to a wide variety of developmental and pathological processes and occurs primarily within integrin-associated adhesion complexes. Here, we review recent advances that have furthered our understanding of the composition, organisation, and dynamics of these complexes, and provide an updated view on their emerging functions. Key findings are that adhesion complexes contain both core and non-canonical components. As a result of the dramatic increase in the range of components observed in adhesion complexes by proteomics, we comment on newly emerging functions for adhesion signalling. We conclude that, from a cellular or tissue systems perspective, adhesion signalling should be viewed as an emergent property of both the core and non-canonical adhesion complex components.