The chemorepulsive activity of the axonal guidance signal semaphorin D requires dimerization

The axonal guidance signal semaphorin D is a member of a large family of proteins characterized by the presence of a highly conserved semaphorin domain of about 500 amino acids. The vertebrate semaphorins can be divided into four different classes that contain both secreted and membrane-bound proteins. Here we show that class III (SemD) and class IV semaphorins (SemB) form homodimers linked by intermolecular disulfide bridges. In addition to the 95-kDa form of SemD (SemD(95k)), proteolytic processing of SemD creates a 65-kDa isoform (SemD(65k)) that lacks the 33-kDa carboxyl-terminal domain. Although SemD(95k) formed dimers, the removal of the carboxyl-terminal domain resulted in the dissociation of SemD homodimers to monomeric SemD(65k). Mutation of cysteine 723, one of four conserved cysteine residues in the 33-kDa fragment, revealed its requirement both for the dimerization of SemD and its chemorepulsive activity. We suggest that dimerization is a general feature of semaphorins which depends on class-specific sequences and is important for their function.