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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Netrins are secreted proteins that regulate axon guidance and neuronal migration. Deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC) is a well-established netrin-1 receptor mediating attractive responses. We provide evidence that its close relative neogenin is also a functional netrin-1 receptor that acts with DCC to mediate guidance in vivo. We determined the structures of a functional netrin-1 region, alone and in complexes with neogenin or DCC. Netrin-1 has a rigid elongated structure containing two receptor-binding sites at opposite ends through which it brings together receptor molecules. The ligand/receptor complexes reveal two distinct architectures: a 2:2 heterotetramer and a continuous ligand/receptor assembly. The differences result from different lengths of the linker connecting receptor domains fibronectin type III domain 4 (FN4) and FN5, which differs among DCC and neogenin splice variants, providing a basis for diverse signaling outcomes.

Neural migration. Structures of netrin-1 bound to two receptors provide insight into its axon guidance mechanism.,Xu K, Wu Z, Renier N, Antipenko A, Tzvetkova-Robev D, Xu Y, Minchenko M, Nardi-Dei V, Rajashankar KR, Himanen J, Tessier-Lavigne M, Nikolov DB Science. 2014 Jun 13;344(6189):1275-9. doi: 10.1126/science.1255149. Epub 2014, May 29. PMID:24876346^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.