Structural highlights
Disease[PCD15_MOUSE] Defects in Pcdh15 are the cause of the Ames waltzer (av) phenotype. It is characterized by deafness and a balance disorder, associated with the degeneration of inner ear neuroepithelia. Function[PCD15_MOUSE] Calcium-dependent cell-adhesion protein. Required for inner ear neuroepithelial cell elaboration and cochlear function. Probably involved in the maintenance of normal retinal function. Publication Abstract from PubMedTip link filaments convey force and gate inner-ear hair-cell transduction channels to mediate perception of sound and head movements. Cadherin-23 and protocadherin-15 form tip links through a calcium-dependent interaction of their extracellular domains made of multiple extracellular cadherin (EC) repeats. These repeats are structurally similar, but not identical in sequence, often featuring linkers with conserved calcium-binding sites that confer mechanical strength to them. Here we present the X-ray crystal structures of human protocadherin-15 EC8-EC10 and mouse EC9-EC10, which show an EC8-9 canonical-like calcium-binding linker, and an EC9-10 calcium-free linker that alters the linear arrangement of EC repeats. Molecular dynamics simulations and small-angle X-ray scattering experiments support this non-linear conformation. Simulations also suggest that unbending of EC9-10 confers some elasticity to otherwise rigid tip links. The new structure provides a first view of protocadherin-15's non-canonical EC linkers and suggests how they may function in inner-ear mechanotransduction, with implications for other cadherins. An elastic element in the protocadherin-15 tip link of the inner ear.,Araya-Secchi R, Neel BL, Sotomayor M Nat Commun. 2016 Nov 18;7:13458. doi: 10.1038/ncomms13458. PMID:27857071[1] From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. References
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