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Description

Cadherin-2 (UniProt P19022, also known as CD325, CDw325, N-cadherin, Neural cadherin) is encoded by the CDH2 (also known as CDHN, NCAD) gene (Gene ID 1000) in human. Cadherins constitute a family of calcium-dependent cell-cell adhesion proteins that play important roles in the embryonic development and maintenance of normal tissue architecture. Cadherins are composed of an extracellular domain (a.a. 160-724 of human N-cadherin) with five homologous repeats that mediates adhesion, a single pass transmembrane domain (a.a. 725-745 of human N-cadherin), and a conserved cytoplasmic domain (a.a. 746-906 of human N-cadherin) that interacts with catenins to link cadherins to the actin cytoskeleton. In addition, a known Src substrate p120ctn also modulate the strength of cadherin-dependent adhesion by interacting with cadherins at their intracellular juxtamembrane domain. Cadherins are synthesized as precursor proteins that must be proteolytically cleaved to generate functional, mature proteins. Newly synthesized proN-cadherin (a.a. 1-906) is phosphorylated and proteolytically processed prior to transport to the plasma membrane. In addition, Plakoglobin (gamma-catenin) and beta-catenin associate only with phosphorylated proN-cadherin, whereas p120ctn can associate with both phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated proN-cadherin. The N-terminal signal and propeptide (a.a. 1-25 and 26-159 of of human N-cadherin) region is proteolytically removed and a core N-cadherin-catenin complex is assembled in the endoplasmic reticulum or Golgi compartment prior to localization at the plasma membrane where linkage to the actin cytoskeleton can be established.