Decreased cell–cell adhesion upon vinculin KO was recently observed in the mouse 4T1 breast cancer line and murine skin cells (Biswas et al, 2021; DeWane et al, 2023) and is in line with the aberrant AJs between cardiac myocytes reported in heart-specific KO of vinculin in mice (Zemljic-Harpf et al, 2007). The gene discussed is VCL; the disease is breast cancer.