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Putting the Rit in cellular resistance: Rit, p38 MAPK and oxidative stress

Cells mobilize diverse signaling pathways to protect against stress-mediated injury. Ras family GTPases play critical roles in this process, controlling the activation and integration of multiple regulatory cascades. p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling serves as a critical fulcrum...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Cai, Weikang, Shi, Geng-Xian, Andres, Douglas A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Landes Bioscience 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3689566/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23802035
http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/cib.22297
Descripción
Sumario:Cells mobilize diverse signaling pathways to protect against stress-mediated injury. Ras family GTPases play critical roles in this process, controlling the activation and integration of multiple regulatory cascades. p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling serves as a critical fulcrum in this process, regulating networks that stimulate cellular apoptosis but also promote cell survival. However, this functional dichotomy is incompletely understood, particularly regulation of p38-dependent survival. Here, we discuss our recent evidence that the Rit GTPase associates with and is required for stress-mediated activation of a scaffolded p38-MK2-HSP27-Akt pro-survival signaling cascade. Drosophila lacking D-Ric, a Rit homologue, are susceptible to a variety of environmental stresses, while embryonic fibroblasts derived from Rit knockout mice display blunted stress-dependent signaling and decreased viability. Conversely, expression of constitutively active Rit triggers p38-Akt-dependent cell survival. Together, our studies establish Rit as the central regulator of an evolutionarily conserved, p38-dependent signaling cascade that functions as a critical survival mechanism in response to stress.