Shinya Kuroda

Members of the Rho family of small Ras-like GTPases--including RhoA, -B, and -C, Rac1 and -2, and Cdc42--exhibit guanine nucleotide-binding activity and function as molecular switches, cycling between an inactive GDP-bound state and an active GTP-bound state. The Rho family GTPases participate in regulation of the actin cytoskeleton and cell adhesion through specific targets. Identification and characterization of these targets have begun to clarify how the Rho family GTPases act to regulate cytoskeletal structure and cell-cell and cell-substratum contacts in mammalian cells. The Rho family GTPases are also involved in regulation of smooth muscle contraction, cell morphology, cell motility, neurite retraction, and cytokinesis. However, the molecular mechanisms by which the Rho family GTPases participate in the regulation of such processes are not well established.

The small guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) Cdc42 and Rac1 regulate E-cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion. IQGAP1, a target of Cdc42 and Rac1, was localized with E-cadherin and beta-catenin at sites of cell-cell contact in mouse L fibroblasts expressing E-cadherin (EL cells), and interacted with E-cadherin and beta-catenin both in vivo and in vitro. IQGAP1 induced the dissociation of alpha-catenin from a cadherin-catenin complex in vitro and in vivo. Overexpression of IQGAP1 in EL cells, but not in L cells expressing an E-cadherin-alpha-catenin chimeric protein, resulted in a decrease in E-cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesive activity. Thus, IQGAP1, acting downstream of Cdc42 and Rac1, appears to regulate cell-cell adhesion through the cadherin-catenin pathway.

In the rabbit mesenteric arterial smooth muscle skinned by saponin, Ca2+ induced contraction in a concentration-dependent manner. Guanosine 5'-(3-O-thio)triphosphate (GTP gamma S), a non-hydrolyzable GTP analogue, lowered the Ca2+ concentrations required for this contraction and increased the Ca2+ sensitivity of the skinned smooth muscle contraction. GTP gamma S alone did not induce the contraction in the absence of Ca2+. This GTP gamma S-enhanced Ca2+ sensitivity was completely abolished by an exoenzyme of Staphylococcus aureus, named EDIN, and an exoenzyme of Clostridium botulinum, named C3, both of which are known to ADP-ribosylate the rho p21 family that belongs to the ras p21-like small GTP-binding protein superfamily. The GTP gamma S-bound form of rhoA p21 overcame the inhibitory action of EDIN. smg p21B, another small GTP-binding protein, was inactive. EDIN ADP-ribosylated a protein, which was most likely to be rho p21, in the skinned smooth muscle. The GTP gamma S-bound form of rhoA p21, but not the GDP-bound form, substituted for GTP gamma S and enhanced the Ca2+ sensitivity of the skinned smooth muscle contraction. smg p21B was inactive. These results indicate that rhoA p21 is involved in the GTP gamma S-enhanced Ca2+ sensitivity of the smooth muscle contraction.