title: Homotypic receptor-receptor interactions regulating Eph signaling.
abstract: The Eph receptor tyrosine kinases and their ephrin ligands direct axon pathfinding and neuronal cell migration, and mediate many other cell-cell communication events. The Ephs and ephrins both localize to the plasma membrane and, upon cell-cell contact, form extensive signaling assemblies at the contact sites. Recent structural, biochemical and cell-biological studies revealed that these assemblies are generated not only via Eph-ephrin interactions, but also via homotypic interactions between neighboring receptor molecules. In addition, Eph-Eph interactions mediate receptor pre-clustering, which ensures fast and efficient activation once ligands come into contact range. Here we summarize the current knowledge about the homotypic Eph-Eph interactions and discuss how they could modulate the initiation of Eph/ephrin signaling.
authors.affiliation: a Structural Biology Program; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center ; New York , NY USA.
authors.forename: Dimitar B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Nikolov
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Juha P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Himanen
mesh_terms: D002450:Cell Communication; D002465:Cell Movement; D036342:Ephrins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008024:Ligands; D011485:Protein Binding; D036081:Receptors, Eph Family / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D036342:Ephrins; D008024:Ligands; D036081:Receptors, Eph Family
keywords: Eph receptors; cell-cell signaling; ephrins; receptor tyrosine kinases