What is "scaffold protein"

n. (context biochemistry English) Proteins that bring together various other proteins in a signaling pathway and allow for their interaction. They recruit downstream effectors in a pathway and enhance specificity of the signal.

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.