2ddu

Publication Abstract from PubMed

The large extracellular glycoprotein reelin directs neuronal migration during brain development and plays a fundamental role in layer formation. It is composed of eight tandem repeats of an approximately 380-residue unit, termed the reelin repeat, which has a central epidermal growth factor (EGF) module flanked by two homologous subrepeats with no obvious sequence similarity to proteins of known structure. The 2.05 A crystal structure of the mouse reelin repeat 3 reveals that the subrepeat assumes a beta-jelly-roll fold with unexpected structural similarity to carbohydrate-binding domains. Despite the interruption by the EGF module, the two subdomains make direct contact, resulting in a compact overall structure. Electron micrographs of a four-domain fragment encompassing repeats 3-6, which is capable of inducing Disabled-1 phosphorylation in neurons, show a rod-like shape. Furthermore, a three-dimensional molecular envelope of the fragment obtained by single-particle tomography can be fitted with four concatenated repeat 3 atomic structures, providing the first glimpse of the structural unit for this important signaling molecule.

Structure of a signaling-competent reelin fragment revealed by X-ray crystallography and electron tomography.,Nogi T, Yasui N, Hattori M, Iwasaki K, Takagi J EMBO J. 2006 Aug 9;25(15):3675-83. Epub 2006 Jul 20. PMID:16858396^[1]

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