Keratin 5 to withstand mechanical, and non-mechanical, stresses. K5/K14 keratin pairs are able to undergo extensive bundling due to the non-helical tail of K15 acting as a weak cross-linker at the intermediate filament surface. This bundling increases the elasticity, and therefore the mechanical resilience, of the intermediate filaments. K5/K14 intermediate filaments are anchored to the desmosomes of basal cells via desmoplakin and plakophilin-1, connecting the cells to their neighbours. At the hemidesmosome, plectin and BPAG1 associate with transmembrane proteins α6β4 integrin, a type of cell adhesion molecule, and BP180/collagen XVII, linking K5/K14 filaments in the basal cells to the basal lamina. Epidermolysis
Keratin about 10 µm across, with cores and coating, and may be arranged in up to 10 layers, also in plaques of variable shape. Adult hornets also use silk as a glue, as do spiders. Some infectious fungi, such as those that cause athlete's foot and ringworm (i.e. the dermatophytes), or "Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis" (Chytrid fungus), feed on keratin. Diseases caused by mutations in the keratin genes include: Keratin expression is helpful in determining epithelial origin in anaplastic cancers. Tumors that express keratin include carcinomas, thymomas, sarcomas and trophoblastic neoplasms. Furthermore, the precise expression pattern of keratin subtypes allows prediction of the