 The term armadillo derives from the historical name of the β-catenin gene in the fruitfly "Drosophila" where the armadillo repeat was first discovered.Although β-catenin was previously believed to be a protein involved in linking cadherin cell adhesion proteins to the cytoskeleton, recent work indicates that β-catenin regulates the homodimerization of alpha-catenin, which in turn controls act branching and bundling .But, the armadillo repeat is found in a wide range of proteins with other functions.