RHO GTPases activate ROCKs (Homo sapiens)
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RHO associated, coiled-coil containing protein kinases ROCK1 and ROCK2 consist of a serine/threonine kinase domain, a coiled-coil region, a RHO-binding domain and a plekstrin homology (PH) domain interspersed with a cysteine-rich region. The PH domain inhibits the kinase activity of ROCKs by an intramolecular fold. ROCKs are activated by binding of the GTP-bound RHO GTPases RHOA, RHOB and RHOC to the RHO binding domain of ROCKs (Ishizaki et al. 1996, Leung et al. 1996), which disrupts the autoinhibitory fold. Once activated, ROCK1 and ROCK2 phosphorylate target proteins, many of which are involved in the stabilization of actin filaments and generation of actin-myosin contractile force. ROCKs phosphorylate LIM kinases LIMK1 and LIMK2, enabling LIMKs to phosphorylate cofilin, an actin depolymerizing factor, and thereby regulate the reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton (Ohashi et al. 2000, Sumi et al. 2001). ROCKs phosphorylate MRLC (myosin regulatory light chain), which stimulates the activity of non-muscle myosin II (NMM2), an actin-based motor protein involved in cell migration, polarity formation and cytokinesis (Amano et al. 1996, Riento and Ridley 2003, Watanabe et al. 2007, Amano et al. 2010). ROCKs also phosphorylate the myosin phosphatase targeting subunit (MYPT1) of MLC phosphatase, inhibiting the phosphatase activity and preventing dephosphorylation of MRLC. This pathway acts synergistically with phosphorylation of MRLC by ROCKs towards stimulation of non-muscle myosin II activity (Kimura et al. 1996, Amano et al. 2010).
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PAK1, PAK2 and PAK3 are direct effectors of RAC1 and CDC42 GTPases. RAC1 and CDC42 bind to the CRIB domain. This binding induces a conformational change that disrupts inactive PAK homodimers and relieves autoinhibition of the catalytic carboxyl terminal domain (Manser et al. 1994, Manser et al. 1995, Zhang et al. 1998, Lei et al. 2000, Parrini et al. 2002; reviewed by Daniels and Bokoch 1999, Szczepanowska 2009). Autophosphorylation of a conserved threonine residue in the catalytic domain of PAKs (T423 in PAK1, T402 in PAK2 and T436 in PAK3) is necessary for the kinase activity of PAK1, PAK2 and PAK3. Autophosphorylation of PAK1 serine residue S144, PAK2 serine residue S141, and PAK3 serine residue S154 disrupts association of PAKs with RAC1 or CDC42 and enhances kinase activity (Lei et al. 2000, Chong et al. 2001, Parrini et al. 2002, Jung and Traugh 2005, Wang et al. 2011). LIMK1 is one of the downstream targets of PAK1 and is activated through PAK1-mediated phosphorylation of the threonine residue T508 within its activation loop (Edwards et al. 1999). Further targets are the myosin regulatory light chain (MRLC), myosin light chain kinase (MLCK), filamin, cortactin, p41Arc (a subunit of the Arp2/3 complex), caldesmon, paxillin and RhoGDI, to mention a few (Szczepanowska 2009).
Class II PAKs also have a CRIB domain, but lack a defined autoinhibitory domain and proline-rich regions. They do not require GTPases for their kinase activity, but their interaction with RAC or CDC42 affects their subcellular localization. Only conventional PAKs will be annotated here.
muscle/non-muscle
myosin IIAnnotated Interactions
muscle/non-muscle
myosin IImuscle/non-muscle
myosin II