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Considerations on the folding topology and evolutionary origin of cadherin domains.

ABSTRACT: Cell-cell adhesion in zonula adherens and desmosomal junctions is mediated by cadherins, and recent crystal structures of the first domain from murine N-cadherin provide a plausible molecular basis for this adhesive action. A structure-based sequence analysis of this adhesive domain indicates that its fold is common to all extracellular cadherin domains. The cadherin folding topology is also shown to be similar to immunoglobulin-like domains and to other Greek-key beta-sandwich structures, as diverse as domains from plant cytochromes, bacterial cellulases, and eukaryotic transcription factors. Sequence similarities between cadherins and these other molecules are very low, however, and intron patterns are also different. On balance, independent origins for a favorable folding topology seem more likely than evolutionary divergence from an ancestor common to cadherins and immunoglobulins.

SUBMITTER: Shapiro L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC41415 | biostudies-other | 1995 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Considerations on the folding topology and evolutionary origin of cadherin domains.

Shapiro L L Kwong P D PD Fannon A M AM Colman D R DR Hendrickson W A WA

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 19950701 15

Cell-cell adhesion in zonula adherens and desmosomal junctions is mediated by cadherins, and recent crystal structures of the first domain from murine N-cadherin provide a plausible molecular basis for this adhesive action. A structure-based sequence analysis of this adhesive domain indicates that its fold is common to all extracellular cadherin domains. The cadherin folding topology is also shown to be similar to immunoglobulin-like domains and to other Greek-key beta-sandwich structures, as di ...[more]

PMID: 7624321

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Project description:Volutin granules appear to be universally distributed and are morphologically and chemically identical to acidocalcisomes, which are electron-dense granular organelles rich in calcium and phosphate, whose functions include storage of phosphorus and various metal ions, metabolism of polyphosphate, maintenance of intracellular pH, osmoregulation and calcium homeostasis. Prokaryotes are thought to differ from eukaryotes in that they lack membrane-bounded organelles. However, it has been demonstrated that as in acidocalcisomes, the calcium and polyphosphate-rich intracellular "volutin granules (polyphosphate bodies)" in two bacterial species, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, and Rhodospirillum rubrum, are membrane bound and that the vacuolar proton-translocating pyrophosphatases (V-H+PPases) are present in their surrounding membranes. Volutin granules and acidocalcisomes have been found in organisms as diverse as bacteria and humans.Here, we show volutin granules also occur in Archaea and are, therefore, present in the three superkingdoms of life (Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya). Molecular analyses of V-H+PPase pumps, which acidify the acidocalcisome lumen and are diagnostic proteins of the organelle, also reveal the presence of this enzyme in all three superkingdoms suggesting it is ancient and universal. Since V-H+PPase sequences contained limited phylogenetic signal to fully resolve the ancestral nodes of the tree, we investigated the divergence of protein domains in the V-H+PPase molecules. Using Protein family (Pfam) database, we found a domain in the protein, PF03030. The domain is shared by 31 species in Eukarya, 231 in Bacteria, and 17 in Archaea. The universal distribution of the V-H+PPase PF03030 domain, which is associated with the V-H+PPase function, suggests the domain and the enzyme were already present in the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA).The importance of the V-H+PPase function and the evolutionary dynamics of these domains support the early origin of the acidocalcisome organelle. In particular, the universality of volutin granules and presence of a functional V-H+PPase domain in the three superkingdoms of life reveals that the acidocalcisomes may have appeared earlier than the divergence of the superkingdoms. This result is remarkable and highlights the possibility that a high degree of cellular compartmentalization could already have been present in the LUCA.

Dataset Information

Considerations on the folding topology and evolutionary origin of cadherin domains.

Publications

Considerations on the folding topology and evolutionary origin of cadherin domains.

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