Editorial overview: Multi-protein assemblies in signaling.

It is now well established that signaling events involve the formation of homo-multi or hetero-multi protein complexes, also called signaling complexes, or clusters, whose assembly and disassembly are precisely controlled. These clusters often represent central nodes for integrating signal transmission across the membrane and across the cellular compartments, which is essential for timely and efficient cellular response. Therefore, knowledge of the key components and understanding of the mechanistic underpinning of multi-protein signaling assemblies is crucial for the development of a comprehensive conceptual framework for different cellular signaling processes and for leveraging this information to design means for efficient therapeutic intervention. This issue of Current Opinion in Structural Biology offers a selected overview of the recent advances towards these goals, the various techniques that are enabling these advances, and the many challenges that remain.