Structures of two intermediate filament-binding fragments of desmoplakin reveal a unique repeat motif structure
- 8 July 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
- Vol. 9 (8) , 612-20
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nsb818
Abstract
Desmosomes are intercellular junctions in which cadherin cell adhesion molecules are linked to the intermediate filament (IF) system. Desmoplakin is a member of the plakin family of IF-binding proteins. The C-terminal domain of desmoplakin (DPCT) mediates binding to IFs in desmosomes. The DPCT sequence contains three regions, termed A, B and C, consisting of 4.5 copies of a 38-amino acid repeat motif. We demonstrate that these regions form discrete subdomains that bind to IFs and report the crystal structures of domains B and C. In contrast to the elongated structures formed by other kinds of repeat motifs, the plakin repeats form a globular structure with a unique fold. A conserved basic groove found on the domain may represent an IF-binding site.Keywords
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