The Coronin Family and Human Disease

The Coronin family is one of the WD-repeat domain containing families that are diverse in both of their structures and functions. The first coronin was identified in the cytoskeleton composition of Dictyostelium discoideum, which was discovered to regulate the actin functions. So far, 723 coronins have been identified throughout the eukaryotic kingdom by bioinformatics analysis in 358 species. In mammals, 7 coronins have been identified to date, which are named through Coronin 1 to Coronin 7; all of these isoforms contain two structurally conservational region: a 7-bladed β-propeller scaffold in N-terminal and a C-terminal variable coiled coil domain. Although some studies were showing that mammalian coronins have regulated the actin dynamics, recently many other functions such as calcium signaling regulation, cAMP signaling regulation, have been also reported beyond the actin modulation. Furthermore, many diseases have been found to be extensively associated with the abnormal expression of coronins, such as auto-immunity, bacterial and virus infection, neuronal behavior disorder and cancer. In this review, we would like to systematically discuss the recent progresses of mammalian coronins and associated diseases, as well as possible underlying molecular mechanisms.