Periostin Functions as a Scaffold for Assembly of Extracellular Proteins

Periostin is a secretory matricellular protein with a multi-domain structure that is composed of an amino-terminal EMI domain, a tandem repeat of four FAS 1 domains, and a carboxyl-terminal domain (CTD). Periostin has been suggested to function as a scaffold for assembly of several extracellular matrix proteins as well as its accessory proteins (Fig. 3.1, Table 3.1), which underlies highly sophisticated extracellular architectures. This scaffold function is likely due to periostin's multi-domain structure, in which the adjacent domains in periostin interact with different kinds of proteins, put these interacting proteins in close proximity, and promote intermolecular interactions between these proteins, leading to their assembly into a large complex. In this chapter, I introduce the proteins that interact with each of the adjacent domains in periostin, and discuss how the multi-domain structure of periostin functions as a scaffold for the assembly of the interacting proteins, and how it underlies construction of highly sophisticated extracellular architectures.