Death effector domain

The death-effector domain (DED) is a protein interaction domain found only in eukaryotes that regulates a variety of cellular signalling pathways. The DED domain is found in inactive procaspases (cysteine proteases) and proteins that regulate caspase activation in the apoptosis cascade such as FAS-associating death domain-containing protein (FADD). FADD recruits procaspase 8 and procaspase 10 into a death induced signaling complex (DISC). This recruitment is mediated by a homotypic interaction between the procaspase DED and a second DED that is death effector domain in an adaptor protein that is directly associated with activated TNF receptors. Complex formation allows proteolytic activation of procaspase into the active caspase form which results in the initiation of apoptosis (cell death). Structurally the DED domain are a subclass of protein motif known as the death fold and contains 6 alpha helices, that closely resemble the structure of the Death domain(DD) The death-effector domain (DED) is a protein interaction domain found only in eukaryotes that regulates a variety of cellular signalling pathways. The DED domain is found in inactive procaspases (cysteine proteases) and proteins that regulate caspase activation in the apoptosis cascade such as FAS-associating death domain-containing protein (FADD). FADD recruits procaspase 8 and procaspase 10 into a death induced signaling complex (DISC). This recruitment is mediated by a homotypic interaction between the procaspase DED and a second DED that is death effector domain in an adaptor protein that is directly associated with activated TNF receptors. Complex formation allows proteolytic activation of procaspase into the active caspase form which results in the initiation of apoptosis (cell death). Structurally the DED domain are a subclass of protein motif known as the death fold and contains 6 alpha helices, that closely resemble the structure of the Death domain(DD) DED is a subfamily of the DD superfamily (other recogniazable domains in this superfamily are: caspase-recruitment domain (CARD), pyrin domain (PYD) and death domain (DD)). The subfamilies resemble structurally one another, all of them (and DED in particular) are composed of a bundle of 6 alpha-helices, but they diverge in the surface features. The complete primary structure of this proteic domain has not been consensually defined. Some studies described residues 2-184, but C-terminus and N-terminus residues are not identified yet. The presence of amino acids that determine the solubility and aggregation to DED allowed to identify DED's in different proteins, such as caspase-8 and MC159. The secondary structure of the domain, as said, is built by 6 alpha-helices. The tertiary structure of the domain has been described from the crystallization of caspase 8 in the human. The method used to describe the structure was X-RAY diffraction and the resolution obtained is 2.2 Å. DEDs in this protein show an asimetric unit dimer, with its interaface contains two hydrogen bonding networks, that appear as a filamentus structure.DED's function is determined by its structure. As far as it is known, the homotypic interactions that activate caspase and trigger apoptosis are mediated by asymmetrical surface contacts between partners (like DED1 and DED2 in the caspase-8 case). The residues that form the surfaces are typically charged amino acids, but a short hidrophofobic patch can also be observed on the interactive surface of the domain.