title: Concepts and consequences of Eph receptor clustering.
abstract: Polymeric receptor-ligand complexes between interacting Eph and ephrin-expressing cells are regarded as dynamic intercellular signalling scaffolds that control cell-to-cell contact: the resulting Eph-ephrin signalling clusters function as positional cues that facilitate cell navigation and tissue patterning during normal and oncogenic development. The considerable complexity of this task, coordinating a multitude of cell movements and cellular interactions, is achieved by accurate translation of spatial information from Eph and ephrin expression gradients into fine-tuned changes in cell-cell adhesion and position. Here we review emerging evidence suggesting that the required combinatorial diversity is not only achieved by the large number of possible Eph-ephrin interactions and selective use of Eph forward and ephrin reverse signals, but in particular through the composition and signal capacity of Eph-ephrin clusters, which is adjusted dynamically to reflect overall Eph and ephrin surface densities on interacting cells. Fine-tuning is provided through multi-layered cluster assembly, where homo- and heterotypic Eph and ephrin interactions define the composition - whilst intracellular signalling feedbacks determine the size and lifetime - of signalling clusters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Wellington Road, Victoria 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Janes
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nievergall
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lackmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D036342:Ephrins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D021962:Membrane Microdomains / Q000378:metabolism*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D021381:Protein Transport; D036081:Receptors, Eph Family / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D036342:Ephrins; D036081:Receptors, Eph Family