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Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Electrophysiological Recordings from the Giant Fiber Pathway of D. melanogaster
Published on: January 14, 2011
Teneurins and latrophilins: two giants meet at the synapse
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior, The University of Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Abstract:
Teneurins and latrophilins are both conserved families of cell adhesion proteins that mediate cellular communication and play critical roles in embryonic and neural development. However, their mechanisms of action remain poorly understood. In the past several years, three-dimensional structures of teneurins and latrophilins have been reported at atomic resolutions and revealed distinct protein folds and unique structural features. In this review, we discuss these structures which, together with structure-guided biochemical and functional analyses, provide hints for the mechanisms of trans-cellular communication at the synapse and other cell-cell contact sites.
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