RHO GTPases Activate Formins

RHO GTPases Activate Formins Formins are a family of proteins with 15 members in mammals, organized into 8 subfamilies. Formins are involved in the regulation of actin cytoskeleton. Many but not all formin family members are activated by RHO GTPases. Formins that serve as effectors of RHO GTPases belong to different formin subfamilies but they all share a structural similarity to Drosophila protein diaphanous and are hence named diaphanous-related formins (DRFs).DRFs activated by RHO GTPases contain a GTPase binding domain (GBD) at their N-terminus, followed by formin homology domains 3, 1, and 2 (FH3, FH1, FH2) and a diaphanous autoregulatory domain (DAD) at the C-terminus. Most DRFs contain a dimerization domain (DD) and a coiled-coil region (CC) in between FH3 and FH1 domains (reviewed by Kuhn and Geyer 2014). RHO GTPase-activated DRFs are autoinhibited through the interaction between FH3 and DAD which is disrupted upon binding to an active RHO GTPase (Li and Higgs 2003, Lammers et al. 2005, Nezami et al. 2006). Since formins dimerize, it is not clear whether the FH3-DAD interaction is intra- or intermolecular. FH2 domain is responsible for binding to the F-actin and contributes to the formation of head-to-tail formin dimers (Xu et al. 2004). The proline-rich FH1 domain interacts with the actin-binding proteins profilins, thereby facilitating actin recruitment to formins and accelerating actin polymerization (Romero et al. 2004, Kovar et al. 2006).Different formins are activated by different RHO GTPases in different cell contexts. FMNL1 (formin-like protein 1) is activated by binding to the RAC1:GTP and is involved in the formation of lamellipodia in macrophages (Yayoshi-Yamamoto et al. 2000) and is involved in the regulation of the Golgi complex structure (Colon-Franco et al. 2011). Activation of FMNL1 by CDC42:GTP contributes to the formation of the phagocytic cup (Seth et al. 2006). Activation of FMNL2 (formin-like protein 2) and FMNL3 (formin-like protein 3) by RHOC:GTP is involved in cancer cell motility and invasiveness (Kitzing et al. 2010, Vega et al. 2011). DIAPH1, activated by RHOA:GTP, promotes elongation of actin filaments and activation of SRF-mediated transcription which is inhibited by unpolymerized actin (Miralles et al. 2003). RHOF-mediated activation of DIAPH1 is implicated in formation of stress fibers (Fan et al. 2010). Activation of DIAPH1 and DIAPH3 by RHOB:GTP leads to actin coat formation around endosomes and regulates endosome motility and trafficking (Fernandez-Borja et al. 2005, Wallar et al. 2007). Endosome trafficking is also regulated by DIAPH2 transcription isoform 3 (DIAPH2-3) which, upon activation by RHOD:GTP, recruits SRC kinase to endosomes (Tominaga et al. 2000, Gasman et al. 2003). DIAPH2 transcription isoform 2 (DIAPH2-2) is involved in mitosis where, upon being activated by CDC42:GTP, it facilitates the capture of astral microtubules by kinetochores (Yasuda et al. 2004, Cheng et al. 2011). DIAPH2 is implicated in ovarian maintenance and premature ovarian failure (Bione et al. 1998). DAAM1, activated by RHOA:GTP, is involved in linking WNT signaling to cytoskeleton reorganization (Habas et al. 2001).