RHO GTPases Activate Rhotekin and Rhophilins

RHO GTPases Activate Rhotekin and Rhophilins Rhotekin (RTKN) is a protein with an N-terminally located RHO GTPase binding domain, that shares a limited sequence homology with PKNs and rhophilins. RTKN binds to GTP-bound RHOA, RHOB and RHOC and can inhibit their GTPase activity (Reid et al. 1996, Fu et al. 2000), which can be corroborated by protein kinase D-mediated phosphorylation of RTKN (Pusapati et al. 2012). RTKN is implicated in the establishment of cell polarity (Sudo et al. 2006), septin organization (Ito et al. 2005, Sudo et al. 2007) and stimulation of SRF-mediated transcription (Reynaud et al. 2000). RTKN can have an anti-apoptotic effect that depends on the activation of NFKB (NF-kappaB) (Liu et al. 2004). RTKN2 (rhotekin-2) is another rhotekin exclusively expressed in lymphocytes (Collier et al. 2004). The function and the mechanism of action of RTKN2 are unknown.Rhophillins include two family members - rhophilin-1 (RHNP1) and rhophilin-2 (RHPN2) with ~75% sequence identity. A RHO GTPase binding domain is located at the N-terminus of rhophilins, followed by a BRO1 domain (characteristic of proteins involved in protein kinase C signaling) and a C-terminal PDZ domain. RHOA:GTP binds both RHPN1 and RHPN2 and these interactions may be involved in organization of the actin cytoskeleton and/or cell motility (Watanabe et al. 1996, Fujita et al. 2000, Peck et al. 2002). RHOB:GTP recruits RHPN2 to endosomes which may be involved in the function of thyroid cells (Mircescu et al. 2002).