Figure 1: Ankyrin functional domains. The prototypical ankyrin has three functional domains. The membrane-binding domain (MBD) is comprised of 24 ANK repeats that bind many membrane proteins. The spectrin-binding domain (SBD) includes the ZU5 motif, which is the minimal binding domain for spectrin. The death domain (DD) and C-terminal domain (CTD) regulate ankyrin’s association with itself, membrane proteins, and the cytoskeleton.