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Solution structures of the adhesion molecule DdCAD-1 reveal new insights into Ca2+-dependent cell-cell adhesion

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 13, pages 1016–1022 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

DdCAD-1 is a novel Ca2+-dependent cell adhesion molecule that lacks a hydrophobic signal peptide and a transmembrane domain. DdCAD-1 is expressed by the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum at the onset of development. It is synthesized as a soluble protein and then transported to the plasma membrane by contractile vacuoles. Here we describe the novel features of the solution structures of Ca2+-free and Ca2+-bound monomeric DdCAD-1. DdCAD-1 contains two β-sandwich domains, belonging to the βγ-crystallin and immunoglobulin fold classes, respectively. Whereas the N-terminal domain has a major role in homophilic binding, the C-terminal domain tethers the protein to the cell membrane. From structural and mutational analyses, we propose a model for the Ca2+-bound DdCAD-1 dimer as a basis for understanding DdCAD-1–mediated cell-cell adhesion at the molecular level. Our results provide new insights into Ca2+-dependent mechanisms for cell-cell adhesion.

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Figure 1: Solution structures of Ca2+-free and Ca2+-bound DdCAD-1.
Figure 2: The N-terminal domain of DdCAD-1 mediates cell-cell adhesion via homophilic binding.
Figure 3: The C-terminal domain tethers DdCAD-1 to the cell membrane.
Figure 4: Structural model of Ca2+-bound DdCAD-1 dimer.
Figure 5: Proposed mechanism for cell-cell adhesion mediated by DdCAD-1.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J.S. Fan for assistance in NMR experiments and Y.K. Mok (National University of Singapore) for providing a pET32a-derived expression vector used in this work. This research was supported by a research grant from the National University of Singapore to D.W.Y. and by Operating Grant MT-6140 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to C.-H.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore, 117543

    Zhi Lin & Daiwen Yang

  2. Banting and Best Department of Medical Research and Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1L6, Canada

    Shrivani Sriskanthadevan, Haibo Huang & Chi-Hung Siu

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Contributions

Z.L. contributed to NMR sample preparations, assignments, structure calculations, mutagenesis studies, model construction, in vitro homoassociation studies and manuscript preparation; S.S. and H.H. contributed to molecular cloning, mutagenesis, protein expression and binding assays in subdomain studies; C.-H.S contributed to project guidance and manuscript preparation; and D.W.Y. contributed to project guidance, NMR data collection and manuscript preparation.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Chi-Hung Siu or Daiwen Yang.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Effects of Ca2+ and Mn2+ on 1H-15N HSQC spectra of DdCAD-1. (PDF 311 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Chemical shift changes induced by Ca2+ binding to DdCAD-1. (PDF 146 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

1H or 15N chemical shift titration curves for the binding of Ca2+ to DdCAD-1. (PDF 151 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 4

Structural comparisons of DdCAD-1 with protein S and cadherin. (PDF 237 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 5

Structure-based sequence alignments. (PDF 114 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 6

Homophilic interaction of DdCAD-1 in vitro. (PDF 84 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 7

CD spectra of DdCAD-1 mutants. (PDF 183 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 8

Binding of 45Ca2+ to wild-type and mutant His6–DdCAD-1 proteins. (PDF 177 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

Statistics of alignments among DdCAD-1, protein S and cadherins. (PDF 67 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Structural statistics for the 10 lowest-energy Ca2+-bound DdCAD-1 dimers. (PDF 74 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 145 kb)

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Lin, Z., Sriskanthadevan, S., Huang, H. et al. Solution structures of the adhesion molecule DdCAD-1 reveal new insights into Ca2+-dependent cell-cell adhesion. Nat Struct Mol Biol 13, 1016–1022 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb1162

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