Elk-L3, a novel transmembrane ligand for the Eph family of receptor tyrosine kinases, expressed in embryonic floor plate, roof plate and hindbrain segments.

The Eph family of receptor tyrosine kinases has 13 distinct members and seven ligands for these receptors have been described to date. These receptors and their ligands have been implicated in regulating neuronal axon guidance and in patterning of the developing nervous system and may also serve a patterning and compartmentalization role outside of the nervous system as well. The ligands are all membrane-attached, and this attachment appears to be crucial for their normal function; five of the known ligands are linked to the membrane via a glycosyl phosphotidylinositol (GPI) linkage, while two of the ligands are transmembrane proteins. Despite the large number of Eph family receptors and ligands, they can be divided into just two major subclasses based on their binding specificities. All the GPI-anchored ligands bind and activate one subclass of the Eph receptors (that represented by Eck) while the two transmembrane ligands bind and activate the other major subclass of receptors (represented by Elk). Here we report the identification and characterization of the third, and most divergent, member of the transmembrane group of Eph ligands, which we term Elk-L3 (Elk-related receptor ligand number 3). Elk-L3 is notable for its remarkably restricted and prominent expression in the floor plate and roof plate of the developing neural tube and its rhombomere-specific expression in the developing hindbrain. The Elk-L3 gene has been localized to mouse chromosome 11 and human chromosome 17.