Assembling stable hair cell tip link complex via multidentate interactions between harmonin and cadherin 23.

ABSTRACT: The hereditary hearing-vision loss disease Usher syndrome (USH) is caused by defects in several proteins, most of which form an integrated protein network called Usher interactome. Harmonin/Ush1C is a master scaffold in the assembly of the Usher protein complexes, because harmonin is known to bind to every protein in the Usher interactome. However, the biochemical and structural mechanism governing the Usher protein complex formation is largely unclear. Here, we report that the highly-conserved N-terminal fragment of harmonin (N-domain) immediately preceding its PDZ1 adopts an autonomously-folded domain. We discovered that the N-domain specifically binds to a short internal peptide fragment of the cadherin 23 cytoplasmic domain. The structures of the harmonin N-domain alone and in complex

SUBMITTER: Pan L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2667052 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature