This entry represents the ligand-binding domain found in ephrin type-B receptor 4 (EphB4). EphB4 has been implicated in a number of cancers [, , , ]. It has also been shown to play a role in osteoblast differentiation []. Class EphB receptors bind to transmembrane ephrin-B ligands. There are six vertebrate EhpB receptors (EphB1-6), which display promiscuous interactions with three ephrin-B ligands [].Ephrin receptors (EphRs) comprise the largest subfamily of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). EphRs contain a ligand binding domain and two fibronectin repeats extracellularly, a transmembrane segment, and a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase domain. Binding of the ephrin ligand to EphR requires cell-cell contact since both are anchored to the plasma membrane. The resulting downstream signals occur bidirectionally in both EphR-expressing cells (forward signaling) and ephrin-expressing cells (reverse signaling) [].
