The fences and pickets model was proposed to explain observations of molecular traffic made due to recent advances in single molecule tracking techniques.
[1] In this model various TM proteins are anchored to and aligned along the membrane skeleton, and effectively act as rows of pickets against the free diffusion of phospholipids.
[1] Therefore, when there are many such anchored TM proteins aligned along the membrane-skeleton fence, the compartment boundary becomes difficult for membrane molecules to pass through.
This immobilization is often enhanced upon receptor engagement, and constitutes a key step for recruiting the downstream signaling molecule.
As such, the actin-based membrane skeleton might work as a base scaffold for enhancing the interactions between the receptor and the actin-bound downstream molecules and for localized signaling.