Probing the reversibility of the Dscam Dimer with Light Scattering and Colloids

Dscam (Down-syndrome cell adhesion molecule) is a fascinating example of the highly specific interactions unique to biomolecules. The extracellular domain is spliced into over 18,000 isoforms. With few exceptions, each isoform, despite conservation of over 95\% of amino acid residues between isoforms, binds to itself and to no other in the set. We investigate the effect of salt and pH on the reversibility of this interaction.