GSBS Student Publications
Title
Hierarchical regulation of WASP/WAVE proteins
Publication Date
2008-11-11
UMMS Affiliation
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences
Abstract
Members of the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) family control actin dynamics in eukaryotic cells by stimulating the actin nucleating activity of the Arp2/3 complex. The prevailing paradigm for WASP regulation invokes allosteric relief of autoinhibition by diverse upstream activators. Here we demonstrate an additional level of regulation that is superimposed upon allostery: dimerization increases the affinity of active WASP species for Arp2/3 complex by up to 180-fold, greatly enhancing actin assembly by this system. This finding explains a large and apparently disparate set of observations under a common mechanistic framework. These include WASP activation by the bacterial effector EspFu and a large number of SH3 domain proteins, the effects on WASP of membrane localization/clustering and assembly into large complexes, and cooperativity between different family members. Allostery and dimerization act in hierarchical fashion, enabling WASP/WAVE proteins to integrate different classes of inputs to produce a wide range of cellular actin responses.
DOI of Published Version
10.1016/j.molcel.2008.10.012
Source
Mol Cell. 2008 Nov 7;32(3):426-38. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Molecular cell
Related Resources
PubMed ID
18995840
Repository Citation
Padrick, Shae B.; Cheng, Hui-Chun; Ismail, Ayman M.; Panchal, Sanjay C.; Doolittle, Lynda K.; Kim, Soyeon; Skehan, Brian M.; Umetani, Junko; Brautigam, Chad A.; Leong, John M.; and Rosen, Michael K., "Hierarchical regulation of WASP/WAVE proteins" (2008). GSBS Student Publications. 1607.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/gsbs_sp/1607