Cadherins are a family of proteins that mediate calcium dependent cell-cell adhesion. They are activated through cleavage of a prosequence in the late Golgi. This domain corresponds to the folded region of the prosequence, and is termed the prodomain. The prodomain shows structural resemblance to the cadherin domain, but lacks all the features known to be important for cadherin-cadherin interactions [1].

1: Structure of the neural (N-) cadherin prodomain reveals a cadherin extracellular domain-like fold without adhesive characteristics. Koch AW, Farooq A, Shan W, Zeng L, Colman DR, Zhou MM; Structure. 2004;12:793-805. PMID:15130472