Semaphorins class

Takegahara N, Kumanogoh A, Kikutani H (2005) Semaphorins a new class of immunoregulatory molecules. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 360 1673-1680... 

Basile, J. R., Barac, A., Zhu, T., Guan, K. L., and Gutkind, J. S. (2004). Class IV semaphorins promote angiogenesis by stimulating Rho-initiated pathways through plexin-B. Cancer Res. 64, 5212-5224. 

More than 30 semaphorins have been identified to date that can be divided into 8 classes based on sequence similarity and domain organization. (Fiore and Piischel, 2003 Mark et al., 1997 Semaphorin Nomenclature Committee, 1999). Glasses 1 and 2 are found only in invertebrates, while classes 3 to 7 are found in vertebrates. Class V members... 

Class 3 semaphorins are the best functionally characterized group. The presence of a sema domain and dimerization are the minimal... 

Vertebrate A-Plexins are the signaling subunits for secreted class 3 semaphorins, while other plexins interact with semaphorins from different classes (Fiore and Piischel, 2003). In contrast to SemaSA, which is not able to bind directly to A-Plexins, SemalD and Sema7A directly interact with Plexin-Bl and Plexin-Cl, respectively (Takahashi et al, 1999 Tamagnone et al, 1999). Interestingly, all Plexins contain an extracellular semaphorin domain that is strictly required for their function (Fig. 7). A semaphorin domain is also present in the scatter-factor receptor MET (Tamagnone et al, 1999). 

Adams, R. H., Betz, H., and Piischel, A. W. (1996). A novel class of murine semaphorins with homology to thrombospondin is differentially expressed during early embryo-genesis. Mech. Dev. 57, 33-45. 

To date, six members of class III semaphorins (Sema-3A to Sema-3F) have been identified, and these members have been reported by a number of studies to function as chemorepellents to distinct sets of axons (reviewed in [45]). Furthermore, there are studies demonstrating that some members of class III semaphorins can act as chemoattractants as well as chemorepellents. 

The receptor for class III semaphorins was identified independently by two groups [20, 29]. They screened a plasmid library by probing... 

Chen, H., He, Z., Bagii, A., and Tessier-Lavigne, M., Semaphorin—neuropilin interactions underlying sympathetic axon responses to class III semaphorins. Neuron, 21,1283,1998. 

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