Structural highlights
Function
[SPTN1_CHICK] Morphologically, spectrin-like proteins appear to be related to spectrin, showing a flexible rod-like structure. They can bind actin but seem to differ in their calmodulin-binding activity. In nonerythroid tissues, spectrins, in association with some other proteins, may play an important role in membrane organization.
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 PubMed
Spectrin is a vital component of the cytoskeleton, conferring flexibility on cells and providing a scaffold for a variety of proteins. It is composed of tandem, antiparallel coiled-coil repeats. We report four related crystal structures at 1.45 A, 2.0 A, 3.1 A, and 4.0 A resolution of two connected repeats of chicken brain alpha-spectrin. In all of the structures, the linker region between adjacent units is alpha-helical without breaks, kinks, or obvious boundaries. Two features observed in the structures are (1) conformational rearrangement in one repeat, resulting in movement of the position of a loop, and (2) varying degrees of bending at the linker region. These features form the basis of two different models of flexibility: a conformational rearrangement and a bending model. These models provide novel atomic details of spectrin flexibility.
Structures of two repeats of spectrin suggest models of flexibility.,Grum VL, Li D, MacDonald RI, Mondragon A Cell. 1999 Aug 20;98(4):523-35. PMID:10481916[1]
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
See Also
References
- ↑ Grum VL, Li D, MacDonald RI, Mondragon A. Structures of two repeats of spectrin suggest models of flexibility. Cell. 1999 Aug 20;98(4):523-35. PMID:10481916
