Talin establishes a major link between integrins and actin filaments and contains two distinct integrin binding sites: one, IBS1, located in the talin head domain and involved in integrin activation and a second, IBS2, that maps to helix 50 of the talin rod domain and is essential for linking integrin  subunits to the cytoskeleton (Moes, M., Rodius, S., Coleman, S. J., Monkley, S. J., Goormaghtigh, E., Tremuth, L., Kox, C., van der Holst, P. P., Critchley, D. R., and Kieffer, N. (2007) J. Biol. Chem. 282, 17280 -17288). Through the combined approach of mutational analysis of the 3 integrin cytoplasmic tail and the talin rod IBS2 site, SPR binding studies, as well as site-specific antibody inhibition experiments, we provide evidence that the integrin 3-talin rod interaction relies on a helix-helix association between ␣-helix 50 of the talin rod domain and the membrane-proximal ␣-helix of the 3 integrin cytoplasmic tail. Moreover, charge complementarity between the highly conserved talin rod IBS2 lysine residues and integrin 3 glutamic acid residues is necessary for this interaction. Our results support a model in which talin IBS2 binds to the same face of the 3 subunit cytoplasmic helix as the integrin ␣IIb cytoplasmic tail helix, suggesting that IBS2 can only interact with the 3 subunit following integrin activation.Integrins are ␣ heterodimeric receptors that mediate attachment of cells to the extracellular matrix (ECM) and therefore play important roles in cell adhesion, migration, proliferation, and survival (2, 3). Integrin clustering at sites of cellular attachment to the ECM triggers the assembly of large multifunctional submembrane protein complexes called focal adhesions (FAs), 5 that orchestrate the two-directional processing of stimuli across the cell membrane (4, 5). Both the integrin ␣ and  chains participate in regulating the integrin extracellular ligand binding capacity, while the  chain alone appears to link integrins to the actin cytoskeleton. Among the cytoskeletal proteins that directly interact with the  chain cytoplasmic domain, four proteins: talin, ␣-actinin, filamin, and tensin possess both integrin and actin binding affinities (6, 7). Talin and ␣-actinin also bind to vinculin, an additional major component of FAs with actin binding activity.Talin and ␣-actinin are of particular interest as they have two integrin binding sites as well as multiple vinculin binding sites and display a similar structural organization comprising an extended rod domain composed of ␣-helical bundles. The ␣-actinin central rod domain, which is composed of 4 spectrin repeats of 3 ␣-helices (8, 9), associates with integrin  subunits as well as vinculin through distinct helix-helix interactions (10 -16). Also, the 3 major talin rod-vinculin head (Vh) contacts have a similar architecture based on hydrophobic helixhelix interactions (17)(18)(19). Other FA proteins, such as members of the paxillin supergene family comprising paxillin, Hic-5, leupaxin, and PaxB, rely on an ␣-helical LD motif for their inter...