Direct molecular force measurements of multiple adhesive interactions between cadherin ectodomains

Direct-force measurements of the interactions between recombinant C-cadherin from Xenopus demonstrated that the ectodomain of cadherin exhibits multiple adhesive contacts that involve successive domains along the extracellular region of the protein. Contacts between the fully interdigitated antiparallel proteins form the strongest adhesive interaction. A second weaker minimum was measured when the interdigitated proteins were separated by a distance equal to the length of one domain of the extracellular (EC) fragment and corresponding to the antiparallel alignment of domains one through four (EC1 through EC4). The successive rupture of these interactions generates an unbinding force profile that may be optimized to impede the abrupt failure of cadherin-mediated junctions under force.