This entry represents the ligand-binding domain found in ephrin type-A receptor 7 (EphA7). EphA7 has been implicated in various cancers, including lung, prostate, as well as leukemia [, , ]. EphA7 has also been suggested to play a role in the development and maintenance of cortical domains within the cerebral cortex [].Class EphA receptors bind GPI-anchored ephrin-A ligands. There are ten vertebrate EphA receptors (EphA1-10), which display promiscuous interactions with six ephrin-A 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) [].
