Lateral self‐assembly of E‐cadherin directed by cooperative calcium binding

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Abstract
We report the Ca2+ binding characteristics of recombinant Ecad12, a construct spanning the first two repeats of epithelial cadherin, and demonstrate the links between Ca2+ binding and dimer formation. Sedimentation equilibrium and dynamic light scattering experiments show that weak dimerization of Ecad12 occurs in the presence of 10 mM Ca2+ (K P d=0.17 mM), while no appreciable dimer formation was detected in the absence of Ca2+. Ca2+‐induced dimerization was also observed in electron microscopy images of Ecad12. We conclude from Ca2+ titration experiments monitored by tryptophan fluorescence and flow dialysis that dimerization does not affect the equilibrium binding constant for Ca2+. However, the value of the Hill coefficient for Ca2+ binding increases from 1.5 to 2.4 as the protein concentration increases, showing that dimer formation largely contributes to the cooperativity in Ca2+ binding. Based on these observations and previous crystallographic studies, we propose that calcium acts more likely as a geometrical aligner ensuring the proper assembly of cadherin molecules, rather than a simple adhesive.