Cadherin-mediated cell–cell adhesion: sticking together as a family

The cadherins comprise a family of single-pass transmembrane proteins critical for cell–cell adhesion in vertebrates and invertebrates. The recently determined structure of the whole ectodomain from C-cadherin suggests that the adhesion of cadherins presented by juxtaposed cells is mediated by a str...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current opinion in structural biology 2003-12, Vol.13 (6), p.690-698
Main Authors: Patel, Saurabh D, Chen, Chien Peter, Bahna, Fabiana, Honig, Barry, Shapiro, Lawrence
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Binding Sites
Cadherins - chemistry
Cadherins - classification
Cadherins - metabolism
Cell Adhesion - physiology
Humans
Models, Molecular
Molecular Sequence Data
Protein Binding
Protein Conformation
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Signal Transduction - physiology
Structure-Activity Relationship
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Summary:The cadherins comprise a family of single-pass transmembrane proteins critical for cell–cell adhesion in vertebrates and invertebrates. The recently determined structure of the whole ectodomain from C-cadherin suggests that the adhesion of cadherins presented by juxtaposed cells is mediated by a strand-swapped dimer in which core hydrophobic elements are exchanged between the partner molecules. Sequence analysis suggests that several cadherin subfamilies share this adhesive mechanism. Recent work has shed new light on the molecular basis of cadherin adhesion, although understanding the specificity of these interactions remains a major challenge.
ISSN:0959-440X
1879-033X
DOI:10.1016/j.sbi.2003.10.007