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Regulating Rac in the Nervous System: Molecular Function and Disease Implication of Rac GEFs and GAPs

Rho family GTPases, including RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42 as the most studied members, are master regulators of actin cytoskeletal organization. Rho GTPases control various aspects of the nervous system and are associated with a number of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. The activity of Rh...

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Autores principales: Bai, Yanyang, Xiang, Xiaoliang, Liang, Chunmei, Shi, Lei
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4388020/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25879033
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/632450
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author Bai, Yanyang
Xiang, Xiaoliang
Liang, Chunmei
Shi, Lei
author_facet Bai, Yanyang
Xiang, Xiaoliang
Liang, Chunmei
Shi, Lei
author_sort Bai, Yanyang
collection PubMed
description Rho family GTPases, including RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42 as the most studied members, are master regulators of actin cytoskeletal organization. Rho GTPases control various aspects of the nervous system and are associated with a number of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. The activity of Rho GTPases is controlled by two families of regulators, guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) as the activators and GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) as the inhibitors. Through coordinated regulation by GEFs and GAPs, Rho GTPases act as converging signaling molecules that convey different upstream signals in the nervous system. So far, more than 70 members of either GEFs or GAPs of Rho GTPases have been identified in mammals, but only a small subset of them have well-known functions. Thus, characterization of important GEFs and GAPs in the nervous system is crucial for the understanding of spatiotemporal dynamics of Rho GTPase activity in different neuronal functions. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of GEFs and GAPs for Rac1, with emphasis on the molecular function and disease implication of these regulators in the nervous system.
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spelling pubmed-43880202015-04-15 Regulating Rac in the Nervous System: Molecular Function and Disease Implication of Rac GEFs and GAPs Bai, Yanyang Xiang, Xiaoliang Liang, Chunmei Shi, Lei Biomed Res Int Review Article Rho family GTPases, including RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42 as the most studied members, are master regulators of actin cytoskeletal organization. Rho GTPases control various aspects of the nervous system and are associated with a number of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. The activity of Rho GTPases is controlled by two families of regulators, guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) as the activators and GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) as the inhibitors. Through coordinated regulation by GEFs and GAPs, Rho GTPases act as converging signaling molecules that convey different upstream signals in the nervous system. So far, more than 70 members of either GEFs or GAPs of Rho GTPases have been identified in mammals, but only a small subset of them have well-known functions. Thus, characterization of important GEFs and GAPs in the nervous system is crucial for the understanding of spatiotemporal dynamics of Rho GTPase activity in different neuronal functions. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of GEFs and GAPs for Rac1, with emphasis on the molecular function and disease implication of these regulators in the nervous system. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015 2015-03-24 /pmc/articles/PMC4388020/ /pubmed/25879033 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/632450 Text en Copyright © 2015 Yanyang Bai et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Bai, Yanyang
Xiang, Xiaoliang
Liang, Chunmei
Shi, Lei
Regulating Rac in the Nervous System: Molecular Function and Disease Implication of Rac GEFs and GAPs
title Regulating Rac in the Nervous System: Molecular Function and Disease Implication of Rac GEFs and GAPs
title_full Regulating Rac in the Nervous System: Molecular Function and Disease Implication of Rac GEFs and GAPs
title_fullStr Regulating Rac in the Nervous System: Molecular Function and Disease Implication of Rac GEFs and GAPs
title_full_unstemmed Regulating Rac in the Nervous System: Molecular Function and Disease Implication of Rac GEFs and GAPs
title_short Regulating Rac in the Nervous System: Molecular Function and Disease Implication of Rac GEFs and GAPs
title_sort regulating rac in the nervous system: molecular function and disease implication of rac gefs and gaps
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4388020/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25879033
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/632450
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