Peptide recognition by PTB and PDZ domains

Protein tyrosine binding (PTB) and 'post synaptic density disc-large to-1' (PDZ) domains bind to short peptidic ligands by augmentation of one of the domain's beta sheets and other recognition mechanisms, The two domain classes have a superficial resemblance to each other, even though no sequential homology exists. The structural bases of the interactions are well understood for the few domains now experimentally determined, and ligand-target pairs can probably be identified in favorable cases by analogy with the known domains. For both PTB and PDZ classes, functional activities are still not fully defined: it is possible that these domain classes, along with pleckstrin homology domains, have multiple roles. (C) Current Biology Ltd ISSN 0959-440X.