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Cadherins

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Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules

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Synonyms

CELSR, classic cadherins, Dachsous, Fat, flamingo cadherins, protocadherins, type-I cadherins

Historical Background: The Larger Cadherin Superfamily

Cadherins comprise a large protein superfamily of calcium-dependent proteins associated with the plasma membrane. They are hallmarked by at least two consecutive extracellular cadherin repeats (ECs) in their extracellular domain. Epithelial cadherin (E-cadherin or cadherin-1) is the founding family member and represents the classic or type-I cadherins. These cadherins mediate specific and strong cell-cell adhesion and play key roles in local organization of cytoskeletal structures and in signaling cascades, as documented below. The mature E-cadherin contains an ectodomain of about 550 amino acids (AA) comprising five ECs, a single transmembrane (TM) domain, and a cytoplasmic domain (CD) of about 150 AA. The CD has two highly conserved domains for binding either p120ctn and related protein family members or β-catenin and the...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Cell Biology Unit, Department of Biomedical Molecular Biology, Ghent University & Inflammation Research Center, VIB, Technologiepark 927, B-9052, Ghent, Belgium

    Frans van Roy

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  1. Frans van Roy
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Correspondence to Frans van Roy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Biological Science, Department of Molecular Science and Tech College of Natural Science, Suwon, Korea (Republic of)

    Sangdun Choi

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van Roy, F. (2016). Cadherins. In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_39-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_39-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6438-9

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