Structure Article Structure of Protein Related to Dan and Cerberus: Insights into the Mechanism of Bone Morphogenetic Protein Antagonism Kristof Nolan,1,5 Chandramohan Kattamuri,1,5 David M. Luedeke,1 Xiaodi Deng,1 Amrita Jagpal,2 Fuming Zhang,3 Robert J. Linhardt,3,4 Alan P. Kenny,2 Aaron M. Zorn,2 and Thomas B. Thompson1,* 1Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Cincinnati, Medical Sciences Building, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA 2Perinatal Institute, Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation and Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA 3Departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Chemistry and Chemical Biology 4Departments of Biology and Biomedical Engineering Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, USA 5These authors contributed equally to this work *Correspondence:
[email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.str.2013.06.005 SUMMARY follicular development, as well as gut differentiation from meso- derm tissue (Bragdon et al., 2011). Furthermore, their roles in The bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are several disease states, including lung and kidney fibrosis, oste- secreted ligands largely known for their functional oporosis, and cardiovascular disease, have indicated their roles in embryogenesis and tissue development. A importance in adult homeostasis (Cai et al., 2012; Walsh et al., number of structurally diverse extracellular antago- 2010). nists inhibit BMP ligands to regulate signaling. The At the molecular level, BMP ligands form stable disulfide- differential screening-selected gene aberrative in bonded dimers that transduce their signals by binding two type I and two type II receptors, leading to type I receptor phos- neuroblastoma (DAN) family of antagonists repre- phorylation.