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© The Rockefeller University Press,
0021-9525/2000//843 $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 148, Number 5,
, 2000 843-848
Mini-Review |
Untying the Gordian Knot of Cytokinesis
: Role of Small G Proteins and Their Regulators
b Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030
c Department of Genetics and Centre for the Molecular Genetics of Development, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
Baylor College of Medicine, T634, Mail stop BCM235, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030.(713) 798-8515(713) 798-5273
sp691305{at}yahoo.com
© 2000 The Rockefeller University Press
Ability to divide is one of the basic properties of a cell. In metazoans, where cells divide in a context of germ layers, tissues, and organs, cell proliferation must be coordinated with differentiation to prevent developmental abnormalities. Genetic analyses in simple model systems (yeast, slime mold, fruit fly) have demonstrated that defects in either karyokinesis, or nuclear division (e.g., mutations that affect cell cycle checkpoints, mitotic chromosome condensation and segregation, etc.), or cytokinesis (Fig. 1), both may delay or block development.
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| Small G Proteins: Janus Within |
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| Small G Proteins and Cytokinesis: Caught in the Act |
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Formation of multinucleate cells upon inactivation of small G proteins strongly suggests defects of cytokinesis. However, this has been demonstrated directly by the absence of a contractile ring or failure of a cleavage furrow in only few cases (Mabuchi et al. 1993; Drechsel et al. 1996; Gerald et al. 1998; Prokopenko et al. 1999). In addition, G proteins may regulate different steps in cytokinesis (see Table ). In some cases, inactivation of a Rho protein resulted in late cytokinetic defects with incomplete or aberrant ingression (Drechsel et al. 1996; Tuxworth et al. 1997; Gerald et al. 1998; O'Connell et al. 1999) or even regression (Mabuchi et al. 1993) of the cleavage furrow. Yet, in other instances, Rho proteins were required for the initiation of cytokinesis, since the contractile ring failed to form and there were no signs of cleavage furrow ingression (Mabuchi et al. 1993; Prokopenko et al. 1999). The most compelling evidence that small G proteins are required for cytokinesis was the identification of regulators of Ras (GAPs) and Rho (GEFs and GDIs) proteins (Table ) that upon inactivation or overexpression blocked cytokinesis (Kishi et al. 1993; Faix and Dittrich 1996; Adachi et al. 1997; Lee et al. 1997; Prokopenko et al. 1999; Tatsumoto et al. 1999; Kodama, Y., A. Sugimoto, and M. Yamamoto, personal communication; Romano, A., T. Schedl, and M. Glotzer, personal communication).
Subcellular localization studies of Rho proteins strongly support a role in cytokinesis. Rho proteins localize to the cytosol or plasma membrane in resting cells (Adamson et al. 1992; Lang et al. 1993; Robertson et al. 1995), but translocate to the cleavage furrow and midbody during cytokinesis (Takaishi et al. 1995; Nishimura et al. 1998). Remarkably, two RhoGEFs known to be required for cytokinesis, human ECT2 (Tatsumoto et al. 1999) and Drosophila Pebble (Prokopenko et al. 1999), have a similar distribution during mitosis, being initially cortical or cytoplasmic and translocating to the cell equator at the onset of cytokinesis. Pebble accumulation at the cell equator parallels the assembly of the contractile ring and progression of the cleavage furrow, suggesting that it is required for the initiation of contractile ring assembly (possibly, by interacting with and activating Rho1 at the cleavage furrow). These data are consistent with the proposed GEF-dependent spatial and temporal regulation of Rho activation, leading to induction of a signal transduction pathway through a direct interaction of RhoGTP with its downstream effectors. Transient activation of the GEF/small G protein molecular switch dependent on the targeting of proteins to a particular subcellular compartment is likely to be a very common strategy. Although the signaling pathways used by different small G proteins must be different, the basic principle of a G protein working as a switch to turn on downstream effectors remains the same and probably has been used independently multiple times during evolution to regulate a variety of aspects of cellular morphogenesis.
| Rho Signaling during Cytokinesis: The Labyrinth of Minotaur |
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How many Rho effectors does a cell need to undergo cytokinesis? Cytokinesis is a complex event involving assembly of actin, myosin, septins, and actin-interacting proteins into a contractile ring, its dynamic contraction, and disassembly at the end of cytokinesis. Most likely, these cytoskeletal events are regulated via several signaling pathways that converge on the contractile ring, with kinases featuring prominently among Rho effectors (Fig. 2). These pathways are likely to act cooperatively, as demonstrated recently for two Rho effectors, p140mDia1 and serine/threonine kinase ROCK, in the formation of actomyosin stress fibers (Watanabe et al. 1999). Rho-activated ROCK phosphorylates and inhibits myosin light chain (MLC) phosphatase, thus promoting accumulation of phosphorylated MLC generated by MLC kinase. Phosphorylated myosin II assembles into myosin filaments and associates with actin to form stress fibers. Interestingly, the kinase domain of citron shows the highest similarity to that of ROCK (Madaule et al. 1998), though it remains to be demonstrated if citron kinase regulates myosin II polymerization during cytokinesis. Since the contractile ring is a cortical structure more complex and dynamic than stress fibers, one can expect a high degree of complexity of Rho-mediated signaling pathways regulating its function. We propose that there is an elaborate hierarchy of proteins regulating cytoskeletal dynamics at the cleavage furrow, in particular polymerization/depolymerization of molecules making up the contractile ring. Since Rho proteins, their upstream regulators, and downstream effectors all localize at the cell equator during cytokinesis, the cleavage furrow is likely to function as a workshop where protein complexes that initiate and regulate cytokinesis are assembled and disassembled.
The limited knowledge we have about signal transduction pathways that initiate and regulate cytokinesis tells us that there are at least two basic regulatory mechanisms operating during cytokinesis: (a) protein–protein interaction or binding of small molecules and (b) phosphorylation. Small G proteins undergo conformational change and become biologically active in response to GTP binding. A similar mechanism, involving protein–protein interaction, has been proposed recently for p140mDia1 (Watanabe et al. 1999). Binding of RhoGTP to the Rho-binding domain of mDia1 is thought to disrupt the intramolecular interaction between protein termini releasing the FH1 and FH2 COOH-terminal domains required to induce actin polymerization. How common is such an activation mechanism? We know that RhoGTP/effector interactions are necessary to initiate a signaling cascade. However, one can imagine that the signal may also be transduced via the formation of ternary protein complexes alone, without interaction-dependent conformational change as suggested for p140mDia1. Intermolecular interactions as well as conformational changes are likely to be featured in this "protein dance". A second mechanism, likely to be universal, is regulation by phosphorylation. Kinases and phosphatases play prominent roles in downstream pathways (Rho effectors), but may also regulate the upstream components of the cytokinetic signaling machinery. ECT2 appears to be activated by phosphorylation which occurs specifically in G2/M phases and this phosphorylation is required for its exchange activity (Tatsumoto et al. 1999). Cdk1 or a Cdk1-regulated kinase may phosphorylate ECT2, since it contains several consensus phosphorylation sites for Cdk1 (Tatsumoto et al. 1999). Interestingly, other ECT2-related RhoGEFs implicated in cytokinesis also contain several Cdk1 phosphorylation sites, one of which is conserved in three species (amino acids [aa] 771–774 in Drosophila Pebble, aa 671–674 in mouse Ect2, and aa 814–817 in human ECT2).
Finally, it is difficult to rationalize the unexpected cell cycle–dependent nuclear localization of three RhoGEFs required for cytokinesis in Drosophila and human cells (Prokopenko et al. 1999; Tatsumoto et al. 1999) or cell polarization in yeast (Cdc24p; Toenjes et al. 1999). All three proteins localize to the nucleus in interphase cells, their levels diminish before nuclear division (or upon nuclear envelope breakdown), and proteins reappear in divided nuclei. Is it evidence for a direct link between the cytokinetic machinery and the mitotic apparatus? Or do these proteins play some role in the nucleus that is unrelated to their roles in cytokinesis? Or is it just a common mechanism to inactivate a regulatory molecule by sequestering it into the nucleus (Pines 1999)? Answers to these and other questions await a better understanding of the molecular pathways initiating and regulating cytokinesis.
| Acknowledgments |
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H.J. Bellen is Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Submitted: 6 January 2000
Revised: 1 February 2000
Accepted: 2 February 2000
Abbreviations used in this paper: aa, amino acids; GAPs, GTPase-activating proteins; GDIs, guanine nucleotide dissociation inhibitors; GEFs, guanine nucleotide exchange factors; MLC, myosin light chain.
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