Structural basis of membrane binding by Gla domains of vitamin K-dependent proteins.
Huang, M., Rigby, A.C., Morelli, X., Grant, M.A., Huang, G., Furie, B., Seaton, B., Furie, B.C.(2003) Nat Struct Biol 10: 751-756
- PubMed: 12923575 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nsb971
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
1NL1, 1NL2 - PubMed Abstract: 
In a calcium-dependent interaction critical for blood coagulation, vitamin K-dependent blood coagulation proteins bind cell membranes containing phosphatidylserine via gamma-carboxyglutamic acid-rich (Gla) domains. Gla domain-mediated protein-membrane interaction is required for generation of thrombin, the terminal enzyme in the coagulation cascade, on a physiologic time scale. We determined by X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy the lysophosphatidylserine-binding site in the bovine prothrombin Gla domain. The serine head group binds Gla domain-bound calcium ions and Gla residues 17 and 21, fixed elements of the Gla domain fold, predicting the structural basis for phosphatidylserine specificity among Gla domains. Gla domains provide a unique mechanism for protein-phospholipid membrane interaction. Increasingly Gla domains are being identified in proteins unrelated to blood coagulation. Thus, this membrane-binding mechanism may be important in other physiologic processes.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Center for Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.