Desmoplakin (DP) is an integral part of desmosomes, where it links desmosomal cadherins to the intermediate filaments. The N-terminal region of DP contains a plakin domain common to members of the plakin family. Plakin domains contain multiple copies ...
Desmoplakin (DP) is an integral part of desmosomes, where it links desmosomal cadherins to the intermediate filaments. The N-terminal region of DP contains a plakin domain common to members of the plakin family. Plakin domains contain multiple copies of spectrin repeats (SRs) Pfam:PF00435. Spectrin repeats (SRs) consist of three alpha-helices (A, B, and C) that form an antiparallel triple-helical bundle. This entry describes SR6 which has a divergent structure relative to the other SRs. SR6 shows significant deviations in helices A and B where they are significantly shorter than in other repeats. Structural comparison revealed that SR6 is more similar to other three-helix-bundle proteins, including target of Myb1 and the syntaxin Habc domain, than to other SR proteins. Due to these differences with other spectrin repeats, this region is termed spectrin-like repeat [1].