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Pathway
Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Kidney Disease Center and Cardiovascular Research Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226
1To whom requests for reprints should be addressed at Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Kidney Disease Center and Cardiovascular Research Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, WI 53226. E-mail: sorokin{at}mcw.edu
Abstract
ß1Pix (PAK-interacting exchange factor) is a recently identified guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for the Rho family small G protein Cdc42/Rac. On stimulation with extracellular signals, GEFs induce the exchange of guanosine diphosphate to guanosine triphosphate, resulting in the activation of the small guanosine 5C-triphosphatases. This activation enables the signal to propagate to downstream effectors. Herein, we show that Gs
stimulation by cholera toxin increased Cdc42 activation by endothelin-1 (ET-1), whereas pertussis toxin had no effect. H-89, a protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor, strongly inhibited Cdc42 activation by ET-1. Moreover, the overexpression of ß1Pix enhanced ET-1induced Cdc42 activation. The essential role of ß1Pix in ET-1induced Cdc42 activation was evidenced by the blocking of Cdc42 activation in cells expressing ß1Pix mutant lacking the ability to bind PAK (ß1Pix SH3m[W43K]) or mutant lacking GEF activity (ß1Pix
DH). The overexpression of mutant lacking the pleckstrin homology domain ß1Pix
PH, which is unable to bind phospholipids, had no effect on Cdc42 activation. These results demonstrate that ß1Pix, along with PKA, plays a crucial role in the regulation of Cdc42 activation by ET-1.
Key Words: G proteins Cdc42 Pix endothelin mesangial cells
Introduction
The Rho family small guanosine 5C-triphosphatases (GTPases) have emerged as key regulators that mediate extracellular signaling pathways, leading to the formation of polarized actin-containing structures such as stress fibers, membrane ruffles, lamellipodia, and filopodia. Besides changes in cytoskeletal architecture, these GTPases mediate diverse biologic events, including stimulation of DNA synthesis, cellular transformation, and signaling to the nucleus (1, 2).
Rho GTPases cycle between inactive guanosine diphosphate (GDP)bound and active guanosine triphosphate (GTP)bound forms. Interconversion between these two forms is regulated by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs), GTPase-activating proteins, and guanine nucleotide dissociation inhibitors. GEFs of the Dbl family stimulate activation of Rho GTPases by catalyzing GDP/GTP exchange of these G proteins (35). All members of this family contain the Dbl homology (DH) domain, which is responsible for catalytic activity. GEF proteins are activated in various ways, including phosphorylation by protein kinases (46). GEFs also contain a pleckstrin homology (PH) domain that is responsible for the interaction with phospholipids. PAK-interacting exchange factor (Pix) family proteins consist of two isoforms,
Pix and ßPix, and recently a new splice variant of ßPix, designated as ß2Pix, has been identified (7). The human Pix family bind tightly through an N-terminal Src homology 3 (SH3) domain to a conserved proline-rich PAK sequence located at the C terminus and are colocalized with PAK to form activated Cdc42- and Rac1-driven focal complexes (8). Recently, Pix has been shown to form a trimolecular complex with PAK1 and p95PKL (also known as G proteincoupled receptor [GPCR] kinase-interacting target) (9). Furthermore, tyrosine-phosphorylated p95PKL can bind paxillin (10, 11) and therefore provides the link between Pix/PAK and focal complexes through this interaction. The presence of several domains allows Pix to interact with a variety of signaling proteins and suggests that Pix might have an important role in mediating the effects of extracellular signals (1214).
In the present study, we demonstrated that the stimulation of a subunit of Gs protein by cholera toxin enhanced Cdc42 activation by endothelin-1 (ET-1). The overexpression of ß1Pix in mesangial cells enhanced Cdc42 activation by ET-1. We also showed that this activation is blocked by protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor H-89.
Materials and Methods
Cell Culture and Transfection.
All materials for cell culturing were purchased from Invitrogen (Carlsbad, CA). Previously characterized simian virus 40transformed human mesangial cells (HMCs) (15) were cultured in Roswell Park Memorial Institute 1640 medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, penicillin (100 U/ml), and streptomycin (100 µg/ml) in a 37°C humidified incubator with 5% CO2. Transient transfection of cells with mammalian expression vectors was performed using Lipofectamine 2000 (Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, MD) according to the manufacturers instructions.
Pulldown Assays of Rho Family GTPases.
Cells were transfected with empty vector, Myc-tagged ß1Pix, or its mutants for 24 hrs. After stimulation with ET-1 for 5 mins, cells were lysed in lysis/wash buffer (25 mM HEPES, pH 7.5, 150 mM NaCl, 1% Igepal CA-630, 10 mM MgCl2, 1 mM EDTA, 1% glycerol, 10 µg/ml leupeptin, and 10 µg/ml aprotinin). To measure the active GTP-bound form of endogenous Cdc42 in the cell lysates, we performed pulldown assay (Cytoskeleton, Denver, CO) using recombinant glutathione S-transferase (GST)tagged PAK1-PBD·PaK-binding domain (PDK). Aliquots (500 µg) of the supernatants mixed with glutathione agarose with 10 µg of GST·PAK1·PBD were precipitated by centrifugation. Complexes were boiled in a Laemmli sample buffer and then separated on 15% SDS polyacrylamide gels. The separated proteins were immunoblotted using specific anti-Cdc42 antibody.
Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Analysis.
Total RNA isolated from rat mesangial cells was reverse transcribed using Superscript reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen), oligo (dT) primers (Invitrogen), and deoxynucleotide triphosphate as specified by the manufacturer. ß1Pix was amplified by means of PCR using TITANIUM Taq polymerase (Clontech Laboratories, Inc., Palo Alto, CA) in the presence of deoxynucleotide triphosphate, the forward primer 5'-GGAATTCCAT-GACTGATAACGCCAACAGCCAA-3', and the reverse primer 5'-GCTCTAGAGCTAGATTGGTCTCATCC-CAAGCAGG-3'. The PCR products were subjected to electrophoresis in a 1% acrylamide gel, and the results were visualized using a bioimaging analyzer. The ß1Pix cDNA was cut with EcoRI and XbaI and inserted into the EcoRI-XbaI site of pcDNA3.1/Myc-His vector. ß1Pix mutants ß1Pix SH3m(W43K), ß1Pix
DH, and ß1Pix
PH were made using a QuikChange Site-Directed Mutagenesis Kit (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA) (16).
GDP/GTP Exchange Assays.
The exchange assays were performed as previously described (17). For GTP
S binding, 2 µg of the recombinant GTPases were initially incubated for 5 mins in 60 µl of loading buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, 100 mM NaCl, 2 mM EDTA, 0.2 mM dithiothreitol, 100 µM adenosine monophosphatepurine nucleoside phosphorylase [AMP-PNP], and 10 µM GDP) at room temperature. MgCl2 was then added to a final concentration of 5 mM, and the incubation continued for an additional 15 mins. Finally, aliquots (20 µl) of GDP-loaded GTPases were mixed with 100 µg of lysates from cells overexpressing c-Myc-ß1Pix or c-Myc-ß1Pix(L238R, L239S) diluted in reaction buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, 100 mM NaCl, 10 mM MgCl2, 100 µM AMP-PNP, 0.5 mg/ml bovine serum albumin, and 5 µM [35S]GTP
S) to initiate the exchange reaction (final volume, 100 µl) at room temperature. Aliquots (15 µl) of samples were taken at various time points from the reaction mixture and added to 10 ml of ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline. Bound and free nucleotides were separated by filtration through BA85 nitrocellulose filters. For the GDP dissociation assay, 10 µM radiolabeled [3H]GDP was used in the loading buffer instead of GDP, and 1 mM GTP was used in the reaction buffer instead of [35S]GTP
S.
Results
We first sought to determine whether ß1Pix regulates Cdc42 activation by ET-1. Pix family proteins are GEFs for the small GTPase proteins Cdc42/Rac (8) and have been shown to signal via these proteins. Therefore, we studied the effect of ß1Pix and its inactive mutants on ET-1induced Cdc42 activation in HMCs. In our experiments, Cdc42 activation was measured after ET-1 treatment of HMC-overexpressing wild-type ß1Pix or its mutants ß1Pix SH3m(W43K), ß1Pix
DH, or ß1Pix
PH (8). ET-1 induced Cdc42 activation in cells expressing empty vector, and this activation was enhanced by ß1Pix overexpression. By contrast, ß1Pix
DH, which lacks GEF activity, and SH3 domainmutated ß1Pix SH3m(W43K), which lacks the ability to bind to PAK, significantly decreased ET-1induced Cdc42 activation (Fig. 1A
). The expression of ß1Pix
PH had no effect on Cdc42 activity. This result indicates that PAK (or another SH3 domain) and GEF activity of ß1Pix are essential for the regulation of Cdc42 activation by ET-1, whereas the PH domain is not.
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We wanted to confirm that ß1Pix is working as a GEF for Cdc42. In vitro assays measured the Cdc42 GEF activity of ß1Pix (Fig. 2
). ß1Pix enhanced the incorporation of GTP
S into purified Cdc42, whereas ß1Pix had no effect of GTP
S incorporation into the dominant negative form of Cdc42 (Fig. 2A
). In reciprocal experiments, [3H]GDP dissociation from purified Cdc42 was enhanced by immunoprecipitated c-Myctagged ß1Pix but not by the ß1Pix(L238R, L239S) mutant, which has GEF activity (Fig. 2B
). The GDP release assay confirmed that ß1Pix is a GDP/GTP exchange factor for Cdc42.
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subunit of Gs protein, enhanced Cdc42 activation by ET-1 (Fig. 4
protein is transducing the signal from ET-1 receptors downstream to Cdc42. This result corroborates our findings that PKA acts upstream of Cdc42 activation by ET-1. It is well established that the Gs
signaling pathway induces the activation of PKA through the production of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) by adenylate cyclase.
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There is accumulating evidence that GPCR agonists activate small GTPases that, in turn, modulate a variety of biologic responses, including cell differentiation and growth (12). It has been shown that the cAMP analogue 8-Br-cAMP can stimulate Cdc42 (17), and in this study we tested the hypothesis that Gs
may mediate ET-1induced Cdc42 activation. Treatment of HMCs by cholera toxin, which permanently activates Gs
proteins, enhanced ET-1induced Cdc42 activation, whereas pertussis toxin, which inhibits Gi/o proteins, had no effect. This result suggests that Gs
mediates the activation of Cdc42 by ET-1. However, we cannot rule out the existence of other mechanisms that may activate adenylate cyclase that do not directly involve the Gs
subunit.
We showed that ET-1 stimulates Cdc42 by a PKA-dependent mechanism, as ET-1induced Cdc42 activation was inhibited in the presence of the selective PKA inhibitor H-89. It has been proposed that PKA can directly modulate activity of some small GTPases. Activation of Rap1 and inhibition of RhoA were ascribed to their phosphorylation by PKA (18, 19). In line with these studies, we show herein that ß1Pix overexpression enhanced ET-1induced Cdc42 activation, whereas deletion of the DH domain or the mutated SH3 domain strongly inhibited Cdc42 activation by ET-1. Moreover, it has been previously shown that ß1Pix can be phosphorylated by PKA in vitro on Ser516 and Thr526 (16). The overexpression of ß1Pix(S516A, T526A) inhibited Cdc42 activation and ß1Pix translocation to focal adhesion complexes (16).
The discovery of GEFs, GTPase-activating proteins, and GDP dissociation inhibitors has improved our understanding of how small G proteins are regulated. It is possible that subunits of activated heterotrimeric proteins coupled to GPCR can directly bind to GEFs, as recently demonstrated for G
12/G
13 and PDZ-RhoGEF (2022). In addition, GPCR can regulate small G proteins through other pathways triggered by heterotrimeric G proteins, including tyrosine kinases, protein kinase C, and cAMP (23, 24).
Footnotes
This study was supported by a grant from the American Heart Association grant (A.C.) and grant HL22563 from the National Institutes of Health (A.S.)
Received for publication October 3, 2005. Accepted for publication November 19, 2005.
References
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13. Science 280:21092111, 1998.
z inhibits serum response factordependent transcription by inhibiting Rho signaling. Mol Pharmacol 66:15081516, 2004.This article has been cited by other articles:
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