Figure 3. The six TspanC8s regulate ADAM10 trafficking and maturation.

TspanC8s interact with ADAM10 and promote its trafficking out of the endoplasmic reticulum and its maturation, during which the inhibitory prodomain is cleaved. TspanC8s may traffic ADAM10 to the cell surface or to intracellular compartments (e.g. Tspan10 appears to be largely intracellular). TspanC8s promote ADAM10 specificity for certain substrates (e.g. Tspan15 promotes N-cadherin cleavage).