VCL and cancer: This opens two interesting scenarios: one that explains how cadherin mediated adhesion could be maintained when α-catenin is reduced or absent, as seen in a variety of cancer cells (Fig. 6, dimers/pairs), and the second where β-catenin prevents vinculin to switch into its head-to-tail autoinhibited conformation, thus providing a mechanism to reinforce AJs (Fig. 6, trimer).