Structural insights into leucine-rich repeat-containing synaptic cleft molecules

Synapses are cell adhesion structures specialized for signal transmission between neurons. At the synapse, presynaptic and postsynaptic terminals of neurons are functionally connected but spatially separated and form a cleft. Membrane receptor-like cell adhesion molecules and secreted proteins in the synaptic cleft (synaptic cleft molecules) can mediate structural and functional linkages between the presynaptic and postsynaptic terminals for neural development or activity. A leucine-rich repeat (LRR) has been known as a typical structural motif for protein–protein interactions and plays important roles in intermolecular interactions mediated by synaptic cleft molecules. In this review, we summarize structural insights into LRR-containing synaptic cleft molecules from recent structural studies and discuss how they are linked to their downstream events.