Abstract

Cellular differentiation is often accompanied by the expression of specialized plasma membrane proteins which accumulate in discrete regions. The biogenesis of these specialized membrane domains involves the assembly and co‐localisation of a spectrin‐based membrane skeleton. While the constituents of the membrane skeleton in non‐erythroid cells are often immunologically related to erythroid spectrin, ankyrin, and protein 4.1, there are structural and functional differences between the isoforms of these membrane skeleton polypeptides, as well as highly variable patterns of expression during cellular differentiation. We consider this heterogeneity of structure and expression during development in the context of the hypothesis that non‐erythroid spectrin, ankyrin, and protein 4.1 are involved in the formation of specialized membrane domains.