The convenience of using erythrocytes compared to other cell types means they have become the standard model for the investigation of the spectrin cytoskeleton.
In humans, association with the intracellular face of the plasma membrane is by indirect interaction, through direct interactions with protein 4.1 and ankyrin, with the transmembrane ion transporter band 3 Protein 4.2 binds the spectrin tail region to the transmembrane protein glycophorin A [REF].