3gxu
Crystal structure of Eph receptor and ephrin complex
Structural highlights
FunctionEPHA4_HUMAN Receptor tyrosine kinase which binds membrane-bound ephrin family ligands residing on adjacent cells, leading to contact-dependent bidirectional signaling into neighboring cells. The signaling pathway downstream of the receptor is referred to as forward signaling while the signaling pathway downstream of the ephrin ligand is referred to as reverse signaling. Highly promiscuous, it has the unique property among Eph receptors to bind and to be physiologically activated by both GPI-anchored ephrin-A and transmembrane ephrin-B ligands including EFNA1 and EFNB3. Upon activation by ephrin ligands, modulates cell morphology and integrin-dependent cell adhesion through regulation of the Rac, Rap and Rho GTPases activity. Plays an important role in the development of the nervous system controlling different steps of axonal guidance including the establishment of the corticospinal projections. May also control the segregation of motor and sensory axons during neuromuscular circuit development. Beside its role in axonal guidance plays a role in synaptic plasticity. Activated by EFNA1 phosphorylates CDK5 at 'Tyr-15' which in turn phosphorylates NGEF regulating RHOA and dendritic spine morphogenesis. In the nervous system, plays also a role in repair after injury preventing axonal regeneration and in angiogenesis playing a role in central nervous system vascular formation. Additionally, its promiscuity makes it available to participate in a variety of cell-cell signaling regulating for instance the development of the thymic epithelium.[1] Evolutionary Conservation Check, as determined by ConSurfDB. You may read the explanation of the method and the full data available from ConSurf. Publication Abstract from PubMedEphA and EphB receptors preferentially bind ephrin-A and ephrin-B ligands, respectively, but EphA4 is exceptional for its ability to bind all ephrins. Here, we report the crystal structure of the EphA4 ligand-binding domain in complex with ephrin-B2, which represents the first structure of an EphA-ephrin-B interclass complex. A loose fit of the ephrin-B2 G-H loop in the EphA4 ligand-binding channel is consistent with a relatively weak binding affinity. Additional surface contacts also exist between EphA4 residues Gln(12) and Glu(14) and ephrin-B2. Mutation of Gln(12) and Glu(14) does not cause significant structural changes in EphA4 or changes in its affinity for ephrin-A ligands. However, the EphA4 mutant has approximately 10-fold reduced affinity for ephrin-B ligands, indicating that the surface contacts are critical for interclass but not intraclass ephrin binding. Thus, EphA4 uses different strategies to bind ephrin-A or ephrin-B ligands and achieve binding promiscuity. NMR characterization also suggests that the contacts of Gln(12) and Glu(14) with ephrin-B2 induce dynamic changes throughout the whole EphA4 ligand-binding domain. Our findings shed light on the distinctive features that enable the remarkable ligand binding promiscuity of EphA4 and suggest that diverse strategies are needed to effectively disrupt different Eph-ephrin complexes. Structural characterization of the EphA4-Ephrin-B2 complex reveals new features enabling Eph-ephrin binding promiscuity.,Qin H, Noberini R, Huan X, Shi J, Pasquale EB, Song J J Biol Chem. 2010 Jan 1;285(1):644-54. Epub 2009 Oct 29. PMID:19875447[2] From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. See AlsoReferences
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