Two types of transmembrane homomeric interactions in the integrin receptor family are evolutionarily conserved

Integrins are heterodimers, but recent in vitro and in vivo experiments suggest that they are also able to associate through their transmembrane domains to form homomeric interactions. Two fundamental questions are the biological relevance of these aggregates and their form of interaction in the membrane domain. Although in vitro experiments have shown the involvement of a GxxxG-like motif, several crosslinking in vivo data are consistent with an almost opposite form of interaction between the transmembrane α-helices. In the present work, we have explored these two questions using molecular dynamics simulations for all available integrin types. We have tested the hypothesis that homomeric interactions are evolutionary conserved, and essential for the cell, using conservative substitutions to filter out normative interactions. Our results show that two models, one involving a GsxxG-like motif (model I) and an almost opposite form of interaction (model II) are conserved across all α and β integrin types, both in homodimers and homotrimers, with different specificities. No conserved interaction was found for homotetramers. Our results are completely independent from experimental data, both during molecular dynamics simulations and in the selection of the correct models. We rationalize previous seemingly conflicting findings regarding the nature of integrin interhelical homomeric interactions.