By carefully studying a mutant fly strain that carries a unique missense mutation in the Notch gene, we identified an evolutionarily conserved region within the extracellular domain of this receptor that allows it to distinguish Serrate from Delta (two Notch ligands). The importance of this domain in Notch-Serrate binding was confirmed when the first co-structure of Notch and its ligand was published by Dr. Chris Garcia's group.
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