Caveolin-1: separating its signaling activites from its caveolae organelle forming abilities

小窝(拉丁语中“小洞穴”的意思)是在大多数哺乳动物细胞中发现的瓶状膜内陷。小窝的主要外壳蛋白Caveolin-1是小窝形成的主要蛋白质；Caveolin-1基因缺失的小鼠在所有非肌肉细胞中也都缺乏小窝，这为小窝的组装提供了直接证据。对小窝的研究表明，它们含有许多信号分子，现在公认的是小窝的形成是以三维方式分离和组织信号复合体的最成熟的方法之一。洞穴研究的重要性如此之大，以至于洞穴研究的先驱之一迈克尔·利桑蒂博士现在是有史以来被引用次数最多的科学家之一。

Caveolae (Latin for 'small caves') are flask-shaped membrane invaginations found in most mammalian cells. Caveolin-1, the main coat protein of caveolae, is the dominant protein for the formation of caveolae; mice lacking the Caveolin-1 gene also lack caveolae in every non-muscle cells, providing direct evidence that Caveolin-1 is directly responsible for caveolae assembly. Study of caveolae show that they contain many signalling molecules, and it is now well accepted that caveolae formation is one of the most established approach to segregate and organize signalling complexes in a tri-dimensional manner. The importance of caveolae research is such that one of the pioneer of caveolae research, Dr. Michael Lisanti, is now the 13th most cited scientist of all time.