Fly protein families Dprs and DIPs can create a multitude of complementary interfaces for homo- and heterophilic adhesion complexes, resulting in instructive roles for connectivity in the motor neuron circuitry.

A network, composed of 22 relatives of the Beaten Path and Sidestep immunoglobulin superfamily cell surface proteins, also includes several neuronal Beaten Path subfamily receptors which interact selectively with Sidestep subfamily proteins expressed on peripheral tissues.

The immunoglobulin superfamily cell surface protein Sticks and Stones is a binding partner for the Lar Drosophila receptor tyrosine phosphatase that mediates Lar's developmental functions at the larval neuromuscular junction, mushroom body, and adult optic lobe.

Crystal structures of synaptic recognition molecules Sidekick-1 and -2 reveal a single homodimer interaction mode responsible for both cell-cell recognition and cis-clustering, suggesting that competition between cis and trans interactions may be critical to specificity.

A novel retinal ganglion cell requires a cell adhesion molecule to grow its dendrites, collect synaptic inputs, and become selective to edges placed in its receptive field.

Bacterial Type IV restriction-modification systems display remarkable, previously unnoticed diversity of complex gene and domain architectures, and are predicted to couple antiphage immunity with the abortive infection form of defense.

Synaptic partner recognition in the Drosophila neuromuscular circuit requires interactions between the Dpr and DIP subfamilies of immunoglobulin cell-surface proteins.

Impairment of protein N-glycosylation disrupts neural cell adhesion mediated by highly glycosylated members of the IgSF-CAM protein family.

A comparative study of modern proteins identifies 40 fragments that may represent the observable remnants of a primordial RNA-peptide world.

The survival of Drosophila amacrine neurons is controlled by neurotrophic signaling mediated by interactions between the cell surface protein DIP-γ and its partner Dpr11, which is expressed on presynaptic photoreceptors.