Biological Assembly 1  

 3D View: Structure | Electron Density | Ligand Interaction

Global Symmetry: Asymmetric - C1 
Global Stoichiometry: Hetero 2-mer - A1B1 

Biological assembly 1 assigned by authors and generated by PISA (software)

Macromolecule Content

• Total Structure Weight: 41.35 kDa 
• Atom Count: 2796 
• Residue Count: 341 
• Unique protein chains: 2

4EHP

Crystal Structure of human vinculin head domain (residues 1-252) in complex with alpha-catenin (residues 277-382)

• DOI: 10.2210/pdb4EHP/pdb

• Classification: CELL ADHESION
• Organism(s): Homo sapiens
• Expression System: Escherichia coli BL21(DE3)
• Mutation(s): No 


• Deposited: 2012-04-03 Released: 2012-04-18 
• Deposition Author(s): Izard, T., Rangarajan, E.S.

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Experimental Data Snapshot

• Method: X-RAY DIFFRACTION
• Resolution: 2.66 Å
• R-Value Free: 0.229 
• R-Value Work: 0.193 
• R-Value Observed: 0.194 

Literature

alpha-Catenin unfurls upon binding to vinculin

Rangarajan, E.S., Izard, T.

(2012) J Biol Chem 287: 18492-18499

• PubMed: 22493458 
• DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M112.351023
• Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
  4EHP


• PubMed Abstract: 
  

Adherens junctions (AJs) are essential for cell-cell contacts, morphogenesis, and the development of all higher eukaryotes. AJs are formed by calcium-dependent homotypic interactions of the ectodomains of single membrane-pass cadherin family receptors. These homotypic interactions in turn promote binding of the intracellular cytoplasmic tail domains of cadherin receptors with β-catenin, a multifunctional protein that plays roles in both transcription and AJs. The cadherin receptor-β-catenin complex binds to the cytoskeletal protein α-catenin, which is essential for both the formation and the stabilization of these junctions. Precisely how α-catenin contributes to the formation and stabilization of AJs is hotly debated, although the latter is thought to involve its interactions with the cytoskeletal protein vinculin. Here we report the crystal structure of the vinculin binding domain (VBD) of α-catenin in complex with the vinculin head domain (Vh1). This structure reveals that α-catenin is in a unique unfurled mode allowing dimer formation when bound to vinculin. Finally, binding studies suggest that vinculin must be in an activated state to bind to α-catenin and that this interaction is stabilized by the formation of a ternary α-catenin-vinculin-F-actin complex, which can be formed via the F-actin binding domain of either protein. We propose a feed-forward model whereby α-catenin-vinculin interactions promote their binding to the actin cytoskeleton to stabilize AJs.

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Organizational Affiliation: 

Department of Cancer Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, Florida 33458, USA.

Macromolecules

Entity ID: 1
Molecule	Chains	Sequence Length	Organism	Details	Image
Vinculin	A	253	Homo sapiens	Mutation(s): 0  Gene Names: VCL
Find proteins for P18206 (Homo sapiens) Explore P18206  Go to UniProtKB:  P18206
NIH Common Fund Data Resources
PHAROS  P18206 GTEx  ENSG00000035403

Entity ID: 2
Molecule	Chains	Sequence Length	Organism	Details	Image
Catenin alpha-1	B	111	Homo sapiens	Mutation(s): 0  Gene Names: CTNNA1
Find proteins for P35221 (Homo sapiens) Explore P35221  Go to UniProtKB:  P35221
NIH Common Fund Data Resources
PHAROS  P35221 GTEx  ENSG00000044115

Small Molecules

Ligands 1 Unique
ID	Chains	Name / Formula / InChI Key	2D Diagram
ACT	A	ACETATE ION C2 H3 O2 QTBSBXVTEAMEQO-UHFFFAOYSA-M

Experimental Data & Validation

Experimental Data

• Method: X-RAY DIFFRACTION
• Resolution: 2.66 Å
• R-Value Free: 0.229 
• R-Value Work: 0.193 
• R-Value Observed: 0.194 
• Space Group: P 2₁ 2₁ 2

Unit Cell:

Length ( Å )	Angle ( ˚ )
a = 57.25	α = 90
b = 73.96	β = 90
c = 107.43	γ = 90

Software Package:

Software Name	Purpose
SCALA	data scaling
MOLREP	phasing
BUSTER-TNT	refinement
PDB_EXTRACT	data extraction
SERGUI	data collection
XSCALE	data scaling
BUSTER	refinement

Structure Validation

Entry History 

Deposition Data

• Deposited Date: 2012-04-03 
• Released Date: 2012-04-18 
Deposition Author(s): Izard, T., Rangarajan, E.S.

Revision History 

• Version 1.0: 2012-04-18
  Type: Initial release
  
• Version 1.1: 2013-07-17
  Changes: Database references