title: Protocadherin family: diversity, structure, and function.
abstract: Protocadherins are predominantly expressed in the nervous system, and constitute the largest subgroup within the cadherin superfamily. The recent structural elucidation of the amino-terminal cadherin domain in an archetypal protocadherin revealed unique and remarkable features: the lack of an interface for homophilic adhesiveness found in classical cadherins, and the presence of loop structures specific to the protocadherin family. The unique features of protocadherins extend to their genomic organization. Recent findings have revealed unexpected allelic and combinatorial gene regulation for clustered protocadherins, a major subgroup in the protocadherin family. The unique structural repertoire and unusual gene regulation of the protocadherin family may provide the molecular basis for the extraordinary diversity of the nervous system.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuroscience, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, 320 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115, USA. Hirofumi.Morishita@childrens.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Hirofumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Morishita
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yagi
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015820:Cadherins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009420:Nervous System / Q000737:chemistry; D010802:Phylogeny; D011487:Protein Conformation; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins