Interactions
Many Ig superfamily molecules bind homophilically and heterophilically, and Dscam/DSCAM proteins are no exception. Vertebrate DSCAMs and DSCAML1s have not only been shown to bind homophilically (i.e., DSCAM–DSCAM or DSCAML1–DSCAML1, and not DSCAM–DSCAML1), but also have cell-type-specific, mutually exclusive expression patterns. Due to the combinatorial use of alternative exons the homophilic binding specificity ofDrosophila Dscam is amplified to tens of thousands of potential homodimers. Biochemical assays, cell-to-cell and bead-to-cell binding assays were used to demonstrate that isoform-specific homodimerization occurs with remarkable binding specificity. This reveals that Dscam diversity can give rise to >18,000 distinct homodimers.
Read more about this topic: DSCAM
Famous quotes containing the word interactions:
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