Definition
The Slit family of secreted proteins has been shown to function in axon guidance and neuronal migration. There are three Slit proteins in mammals, and while Slit1 expression is mostly restricted to the nervous system, Slit2 and Slit3 are also expressed in other organs.
Characteristics
A typical Slit protein contains an N-terminal signal peptide, four leucine-rich repeats (LRRs), seven (in Drosophila) or nine (in vertebrates) EGF repeats, a laminin G domain, and a C-terminal cysteine knot (Fig. 1). The receptor for Slit is the transmembrane protein Robo (Roundabout), and four ROBO genes have been identified. Typically, Robo proteins, including Robo1, consist of five extracellular immunoglobulin (Ig) domains, three fibronectin repeats, and a conserved intracellular region of four cytoplasmic motifs (Fig. 1).
Schematic depicting the structure of prototypical Slit and Robo proteins. The mammalian Slit protein contains an N-terminal signal peptide, four leucine-rich...
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References
Dickson BJ (2002) Molecular mechanisms of axon guidance. Science 298:1959–1964
Dickson BJ, Gilestro GF (2006) Regulation of commissural axon pathfinding by slit and its robo receptors. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol 22:651–675
Werbowetski-Ogilvie TE, Seyed Sadr M, Jabado N et al (2006) Inhibition of medulloblastoma cell invasion by Slit. Oncogene 25:5103–5112
Wong K, Park HT, Wu JY et al (2002) Slit proteins: molecular guidance cues for cells ranging from neurons to leukocytes. Curr Opin Genet Dev 12:583–591
See Also
(2012) Axon Guidance. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 324. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_497
(2012) Glioblastoma. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 1554. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_2421
(2012) Risk Factor. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 3310. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_5111
(2012) Robo. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 3316. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_5119
(2012) SrGAPs. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 3499. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_5475
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Werbowetski-Ogilvie, T.E., Sadr, M.S., Del Maestro, R.F. (2015). Slit. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_5351-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_5351-2
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9
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