Specificity of cell-cell adhesion by classical cadherins: Critical role for low-affinity dimerization through beta-strand swapping.

ABSTRACT: Cadherins constitute a family of cell-surface proteins that mediate intercellular adhesion through the association of protomers presented from juxtaposed cells. Differential cadherin expression leads to highly specific intercellular interactions in vivo. This cell-cell specificity is difficult to understand at the molecular level because individual cadherins within a given subfamily are highly similar to each other both in sequence and structure, and they dimerize with remarkably low binding affinities. Here, we provide a molecular model that accounts for these apparently contradictory observations. The model is based in part on the fact that cadherins bind to one another by "swapping" the N-terminal beta-strands of their adhesive domains. An inherent feature of strand swapping (or, more g

SUBMITTER: Chen CP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1150851 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature