Scaffold protein

In biology, scaffold proteins are crucial regulators of many key signaling pathways. Although scaffolds are not strictly defined in function, they are known to interact and/or bind with multiple members of a signaling pathway, tethering them into complexes. In such pathways, they regulate signal transduction and help localize pathway components (organized in complexes) to specific areas of the cell such as the plasma membrane, the cytoplasm, the nucleus, the Golgi, endosomes, and the mitochondria.