Member database | SUPERFAMILY |
SUPERFAMILY type | homologous superfamily |
Description Imported from IPR036749
Expansins are secreted proteins of 25 to 27 Kd that were isolated first from young cucumber seedling and subsequently from other plant tissues. Expression of expansin genes correlates with growth of cells. Increase in expansin content also occurs during fruit ripening. Expansins act on the cell wall to promote its extensibility. The model for its mechanism of action postulates that expansins break non-covalent bonds between cell-wall polysaccharides, thereby permitting pressure dependent expansion of the cell
[1, 2].
Group-I pollen allergens of grasses have limited but significant sequence homology to expansin. These proteins are the main causative agent of hay fever and seasonal asthma induced by grass pollen. Extracts containing group-I allergens are also active in loosening cell-walls. Group-I pollen allergens and related proteins in vegetative tissues have been classified as beta-expansins, whereas the earlier discovered expansins are now referred as α-expansins
[3].
Expansins consist of two domains closely packed and aligned so as to form a long, shallow groove with potential to bind a glycan backbone of ~10 sugar residues. The N-terminal cysteine-rich domain has distant sequence similarity to family-45 endoglucanases (EG45-like domain). The ~90-residue C-terminal domain may function as a cellulose-binding domain (CBD). It is composed of eight β-strands assembled into two antiparallel β-sheets. The two β-sheets are at slight angles to each other and form a β-sandwich similar to the Ig fold
[4].
This entry represents the expansin CBD-like domain superfamily.
References Imported from IPR036749
1.Loosening of plant cell walls by expansins. Cosgrove DJ. Nature 407, 321-6, (2000). View articlePMID: 11014181
2.Expansins: ever-expanding numbers and functions. Lee Y, Choi D, Kende H. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 4, 527-32, (2001). View articlePMID: 11641069
3.Group I allergens of grass pollen as cell wall-loosening agents. Cosgrove DJ, Bedinger P, Durachko DM. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 94, 6559-64, (1997). View articlePMID: 9177257
4.Crystal structure and activities of EXPB1 (Zea m 1), a beta-expansin and group-1 pollen allergen from maize. Yennawar NH, Li LC, Dudzinski DM, Tabuchi A, Cosgrove DJ. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103, 14664-71, (2006). View articlePMID: 16984999