Fig. 1

Main structures and functions of three cadherin subfamilies in deuterostomes. Domain architectures for representative classical cadherins, protocadherins, and atypical cadherins are derived from the SMART database. The domain structures for all the cadherins depicted are derived from Mus musculus with the exception of the type III classical cadherin, which instead originates from Lytechinus variegatus. The magenta bar encompasses the transmembrane regions of each protein, and the functions of each of the three subfamilies are outlined in blue. More in-depth descriptions of research on these functions are available in the Background section