EGF-family
EGF is the founding member of the EGF-family of proteins. Members of this protein family have highly similar structural and functional characteristics. Besides EGF itself other family members include:
- Heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HB-EGF)
- transforming growth factor-α (TGF-α)
- Amphiregulin (AR)
- Epiregulin (EPR)
- Epigen
- Betacellulin (BTC)
- neuregulin-1 (NRG1)
- neuregulin-2 (NRG2)
- neuregulin-3 (NRG3)
- neuregulin-4 (NRG4).
All family members contain one or more repeats of the conserved amino acid sequence:
CX7CX4-5CX10-13CXCX8GXRC
Where X represents any amino acid.
This sequence contains 6 cysteine residues that form three intramolecular disulfide bonds. Disulfide bond formation generates three structural loops that are essential for high-affinity binding between members of the EGF-family and their cell-surface receptors.
Read more about this topic: Epidermal Growth Factor