scholarly journals Vimentin organization modulates the formation of lamellipodia

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 1274-1289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian T. Helfand ◽  
Melissa G. Mendez ◽  
S. N. Prasanna Murthy ◽  
Dale K. Shumaker ◽  
Boris Grin ◽  
...  

Vimentin intermediate filaments (VIF) extend throughout the rear and perinuclear regions of migrating fibroblasts, but only nonfilamentous vimentin particles are present in lamellipodial regions. In contrast, VIF networks extend to the entire cell periphery in serum-starved or nonmotile fibroblasts. Upon serum addition or activation of Rac1, VIF are rapidly phosphorylated at Ser-38, a p21-activated kinase phosphorylation site. This phosphorylation of vimentin is coincident with VIF disassembly at and retraction from the cell surface where lamellipodia form. Furthermore, local induction of photoactivatable Rac1 or the microinjection of a vimentin mimetic peptide (2B2) disassemble VIF at sites where lamellipodia subsequently form. When vimentin organization is disrupted by a dominant-negative mutant or by silencing, there is a loss of polarity, as evidenced by the formation of lamellipodia encircling the entire cell, as well as reduced cell motility. These findings demonstrate an antagonistic relationship between VIF and the formation of lamellipodia.

2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (20) ◽  
pp. 9138-9150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henriette Andersen ◽  
Jakob Mejlvang ◽  
Shaukat Mahmood ◽  
Irina Gromova ◽  
Pavel Gromov ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The invasion suppressor protein, E-cadherin, plays a central role in epithelial cell-cell adhesion. Loss of E-cadherin expression or function in various tumors of epithelial origin is associated with a more invasive phenotype. In this study, by expressing a dominant-negative mutant of E-cadherin (Ec1WVM) in A431 cells, we demonstrated that specific inhibition of E-cadherin-dependent cell-cell adhesion led to the genetic reprogramming of tumor cells. In particular, prolonged inhibition of cell-cell adhesion activated expression of vimentin and repressed cytokeratins, suggesting that the effects of Ec1WVM can be classified as epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Both short-term and prolonged expression of Ec1WVM resulted in morphological transformation and increased cell migration though to different extents. Short-term expression of Ec1WVM up-regulated two AP-1 family members, c-jun and fra-1, but was insufficient to induce complete mesenchymal transition. AP-1 activity induced by the short-term expression of Ec1WVM was required for transcriptional up-regulation of AP-1 family members and down-regulation of two other Ec1WVM-responsive genes, S100A4 and igfbp-3. Using a dominant-negative mutant of c-Jun (TAM67) and RNA interference-mediated silencing of c-Jun and Fra-1, we demonstrated that AP-1 was required for cell motility stimulated by the expression of Ec1WVM. In contrast, Ec1WVM-mediated changes in cell morphology were AP-1-independent. Our data suggest that mesenchymal transition induced by prolonged functional inhibition of E-cadherin is a slow and gradual process. At the initial step of this process, Ec1WVM triggers a positive autoregulatory mechanism that increases AP-1 activity. Activated AP-1 in turn contributes to Ec1WVM-mediated effects on gene expression and tumor cell motility. These data provide novel insight into the tumor suppressor function of E-cadherin.


2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (24) ◽  
pp. 11005-11018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dipak K. Giri ◽  
Mohamed Ali-Seyed ◽  
Long-Yuan Li ◽  
Dung-Fang Lee ◽  
Pin Ling ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The cell membrane receptor ErbB-2 migrates to the nucleus. However, the mechanism of its nuclear translocation is unclear. Here, we report a novel mechanism of its nuclear localization that involves interaction with the transport receptor importin β1, nuclear pore protein Nup358, and a host of players in endocytic internalization. Knocking down importin β1 using small interfering RNA oligonucleotides or inactivation of small GTPase Ran by RanQ69L, a dominant-negative mutant of Ran, causes a nuclear transport defect of ErbB-2. Mutation of a putative nuclear localization signal in ErbB-2 destroys its interaction with importin β1 and arrests nuclear translocation, while inactivation of nuclear export receptor piles up ErbB-2 within the nucleus. Additionally, blocking of internalization by a dominant-negative mutant of dynamin halts its nuclear localization. Thus, the cell membrane-embedded ErbB-2, through endocytosis using the endocytic vesicle as a vehicle, importin β1 as a driver and Nup358 as a traffic light, migrates from the cell surface to the nucleus. This novel mechanism explains how a receptor tyrosine kinase on the cell surface can be translocated into the nucleus. This pathway may serve as a general mechanism to allow direct communication between cell surface receptors and the nucleus, and our findings thus open a new era in understanding direct trafficking between the cell membrane and nucleus.


2002 ◽  
Vol 159 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulia A. Komarova ◽  
Anna S. Akhmanova ◽  
Shin-ichiro Kojima ◽  
Niels Galjart ◽  
Gary G. Borisy

The role of plus end–tracking proteins in regulating microtubule (MT) dynamics was investigated by expressing a dominant negative mutant that removed endogenous cytoplasmic linker proteins (CLIPs) from MT plus ends. In control CHO cells, MTs exhibited asymmetric behavior: MTs persistently grew toward the plasma membrane and displayed frequent fluctuations of length near the cell periphery. In the absence of CLIPs, the microtubule rescue frequency was reduced by sevenfold. MT behavior became symmetrical, consisting of persistent growth and persistent shortening. Removal of CLIPs also caused loss of p150Glued but not CLIP-associating protein (CLASP2) or EB1. This result raised the possibility that the change in dynamics was a result of the loss of either CLIPs or p150Glued. To distinguish between these possibilities, we performed rescue experiments. Normal MT dynamics were restored by expression of the CLIP-170 head domain, but p150Glued was not recruited back to MT plus ends. Expression of p150Glued head domain only partially restored MT dynamics. We conclude that the CLIP head domain is sufficient to alter MT dynamics either by itself serving as a rescue factor or indirectly by recruiting a rescue factor. By promoting a high rescue frequency, CLIPs provide a mechanism by which MT plus ends may be concentrated near the cell margin.


2001 ◽  
Vol 277 (7) ◽  
pp. 4609-4617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Miyamoto ◽  
Mujib Rahman ◽  
Hiroshi Takatera ◽  
Hong-Yo Kang ◽  
Shuyuan Yeh ◽  
...  

2002 ◽  
Vol 365 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine CHOUINARD ◽  
Kristoffer VALERIE ◽  
Mahmoud ROUABHIA ◽  
Jacques HUOT

Human keratinocytes respond to UV rays by developing a fast adaptive response that contributes to maintaining their functions and survival. We investigated the role of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways in transducing the UV signals in normal human keratinocytes. We found that UVA, UVB or UVC induced a marked and persistent activation of p38, whereas c-Jun N-terminal kinase or extracellular signal-regulated kinase were less or not activated respectively. Inhibition of p38 activity by expression of a dominant-negative mutant of p38 or with SB203580 impaired cell viability and led to an increase in UVB-induced apoptosis. This sensitization to apoptosis was independent of caspase activities. Inhibition of p38 did not sensitize transformed HaCaT keratinocytes to UVB-induced apoptosis. In normal keratinocytes, expression of a dominant-negative mutant of p53 increased UVB-induced cell death, pointing to a role for p53. In these cells, UVB triggered a p38-dependent phosphorylation of p53 on Ser-15. This phosphorylation was associated with an SB203580-sensitive accumulation of p53, even in the presence of a serine phosphatase inhibitor. Accumulated p53 was localized mainly in the cytoplasm, independently of CRM1 nuclear export. In HaCaT cells, p53 was localized exclusively in the nucleus and its distribution and level were not affected by UVB or p38 inhibition. However, UVB induced an SB203580-insensitive phosphorylation on Ser-15 of mutated p53. Overall, our results suggest that, in normal human keratinocytes, protection against UVB depends on p38-mediated phosphorylation and stabilization of p53 and is tightly associated with the cytoplasmic sequestration of wild-type p53. We conclude that the p38/p53 pathway plays a key role in the adaptive response of normal human keratinocytes against UV stress.


2002 ◽  
Vol 115 (12) ◽  
pp. 2591-2601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natacha Edme ◽  
Julian Downward ◽  
Jean-Paul Thiery ◽  
Brigitte Boyer

Cell dissociation and cell migration are the two main components of epithelium-mesenchyme transitions (EMT). We previously demonstrated that Ras is required for the accomplishment of both of these processes during the EGF-induced EMT of the NBT-II rat carcinoma cell line in vitro. In this study,we examined the downstream targets of Ras that are responsible for the dissociation and motility of NBT-II cells. Overexpression of activated forms of c-Raf and MEK1 (a component of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, MAPK) led to cell dissociation, as inferred by the loss of desmosomes from the cell periphery. By contrast, active PI3K, RalA and RalB did not induce desmosome breakdown. The MEK1 inhibitor PD098059 inhibited EGF- and Ras-induced cell dispersion, whereas the PI3K inhibitor LY294002 had no effect. Accordingly, among the partial loss-of-function mutants of Ras(RasV12) that were used to distinguish between downstream targets of Ras, we found that the Raf-specific Ras mutants RasV12S35 and RasV12E38 induced cell dissociation. The PI3K- and RalGDS-activating Ras mutants had, in contrast, no effect on cell dispersion. However, MEK1 was unable to promote cell motility,whereas RasV12S35 and RasV12E38 induced cell migration, suggesting that another Ras effector was responsible for cell motility. We found that the small GTPase Rac is necessary for EGF-mediated cell dispersion since overexpression of a dominant-negative mutant of Rac1 (Rac1N17) inhibited EGF-induced NBT-II cell migration. All stimuli that promoted cell migration also induced Rac activation. Finally, coexpression of active Rac1 and active MEK1 induced the motility of NBT-II cells, suggesting that Ras mediates NBT-II cell scattering through the coordinate activation of Rac and the Raf/MAPK pathway.


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