skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Distinctive Structure of the EphA3/Ephrin-A5 Complex Reveals a Dual Mode of Eph Receptor Interaction for Ephrin-A5

Journal Article · · PLoS ONE
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [4]
  1. Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  2. Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Inst., La Jolla, CA (United States)
  3. Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Inst., La Jolla, CA (United States); Univ. of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of Parma (Italy)

he Eph receptor tyrosine kinase/ephrin ligand system regulates a wide spectrum of physiological processes, while its dysregulation has been implicated in cancer progression. The human EphA3 receptor is widely upregulated in the tumor microenvironment and is highly expressed in some types of cancer cells. Furthermore, EphA3 is among the most highly mutated genes in lung cancer and it is also frequently mutated in other cancers. We report the structure of the ligand-binding domain of the EphA3 receptor in complex with its preferred ligand, ephrin-A5. The structure of the complex reveals a pronounced tilt of the ephrin-A5 ligand compared to its orientation when bound to the EphA2 and EphB2 receptors and similar to its orientation when bound to EphA4. This tilt brings an additional area of ephrin-A5 into contact with regions of EphA3 outside the ephrin-binding pocket thereby enlarging the size of the interface, which is consistent with the high binding affinity of ephrin-A5 for EphA3. This large variation in the tilt of ephrin-A5 bound to different Eph receptors has not been previously observed for other ephrins.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Grant/Contract Number:
NCI P01CA138390
OSTI ID:
1252780
Journal Information:
PLoS ONE, Vol. 10, Issue 5; ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher:
Public Library of ScienceCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
ENGLISH
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 8 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (39)

Shape Complementarity at Protein/Protein Interfaces journal December 1993
Crystal structure of the EphA4 protein tyrosine kinase domain in the apo- and dasatinib-bound state journal October 2011
Overview of the CCP 4 suite and current developments journal March 2011
Distinct Subdomains of the EphA3 Receptor Mediate Ligand Binding and Receptor Dimerization journal August 1998
A high-content cellular senescence screen identifies candidate tumor suppressors, including EPHA3 journal February 2013
Eph Receptors and Ephrins: Therapeutic Opportunities journal January 2015
Eph-Ephrin Bidirectional Signaling in Physiology and Disease journal April 2008
Structural Plasticity of Eph Receptor A4 Facilitates Cross-Class Ephrin Signaling journal October 2009
Crystal structure of an Eph receptor–ephrin complex journal December 2001
PHENIX: a comprehensive Python-based system for macromolecular structure solution journal January 2010
Eph receptor signalling casts a wide net on cell behaviour journal June 2005
Cancer Somatic Mutations Disrupt Functions of the EphA3 Receptor Tyrosine Kinase through Multiple Mechanisms journal February 2012
EphA3 biology and cancer journal November 2014
Discovery and structural analysis of Eph receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors journal August 2009
An extracellular steric seeding mechanism for Eph-ephrin signaling platform assembly journal March 2010
Repelling class discrimination: ephrin-A5 binds to and activates EphB2 receptor signaling journal April 2004
Architecture of Eph receptor clusters journal May 2010
Ligand recognition by A‐class Eph receptors: crystal structures of the EphA2 ligand‐binding domain and the EphA2/ephrin‐A1 complex journal May 2009
Automated macromolecular model building for X-ray crystallography using ARP/wARP version 7 journal June 2008
Insights into Eph receptor tyrosine kinase activation from crystal structures of the EphA4 ectodomain and its complex with ephrin-A5 journal August 2013
Ligand for EPH-related Kinase (LERK) 7 Is the Preferred High Affinity Ligand for the HEK Receptor journal June 1997
AL2CO: calculation of positional conservation in a protein sequence alignment journal August 2001
Structurally encoded intraclass differences in EphA clusters drive distinct cell responses journal June 2013
Eph receptors and ephrins in cancer: bidirectional signalling and beyond journal March 2010
Structural and Biophysical Characterization of the EphB4·EphrinB2 Protein-Protein Interaction and Receptor Specificity journal July 2006
Inference of Macromolecular Assemblies from Crystalline State journal September 2007
Autoregulation by the Juxtamembrane Region of the Human Ephrin Receptor Tyrosine Kinase A3 (EphA3) journal June 2008
Targeting Eph receptors with peptides and small molecules: Progress and challenges journal February 2012
[20] Processing of X-ray diffraction data collected in oscillation mode book January 1997
Somatic mutations affect key pathways in lung adenocarcinoma journal October 2008
Phaser crystallographic software journal July 2007
Effects of Cancer-Associated EPHA3 Mutations on Lung Cancer journal August 2012
Structural Basis for Autoinhibition of the EphB2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinase by the Unphosphorylated Juxtamembrane Region journal September 2001
Distinctive binding of three antagonistic peptides to the ephrin-binding pocket of the EphA4 receptor journal June 2012
Structural Characterization of the EphA4-Ephrin-B2 Complex Reveals New Features Enabling Eph-Ephrin Binding Promiscuity journal October 2009
Dissecting the EphA3/Ephrin-A5 Interactions Using a Novel Functional Mutagenesis Screen journal December 2003
Coot model-building tools for molecular graphics journal November 2004
Targeting EphA3 Inhibits Cancer Growth by Disrupting the Tumor Stromal Microenvironment journal August 2014
PHENIX: a comprehensive Python-based system for macromolecular structure solution. text January 2010

Cited By (2)

CCR10+ epithelial cells from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis lungs drive remodeling journal August 2018
Novel Nine-Exon AR Transcripts (Exon 1/Exon 1b/Exons 2–8) in Normal and Cancerous Breast and Prostate Cells journal December 2016