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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 275, Issue 40, 31001-31008, October 6, 2000
From the
Received for publication, June 16, 2000
The importance of post-translational
geranylgeranylation of the GTPase RhoA for its ability to induce
cellular proliferation and malignant transformation is not well
understood. In this manuscript we demonstrate that geranylgeranylation
is required for the proper cellular localization of V14RhoA and for its
ability to induce actin stress fiber and focal adhesion formation.
Furthermore, V14RhoA geranylgeranylation was also required for
suppressing p21WAF transcription, promoting cell
cycle progression and cellular proliferation. The ability of V14RhoA to
induce focus formation and enhance plating efficiency and oncogenic Ras
anchorage-dependent growth was also dependent on its
geranylgeranylation. The only biological activity of V14RhoA that was
not dependent on its prenylation was its ability to induce serum
response element transcriptional activity. Furthermore, we
demonstrate that a farnesylated form of V14RhoA was also able to bind
RhoGDI-1, was able to induce cytoskeleton organization, proliferation,
and transformation, and was just as potent as geranylgeranylated
V14RhoA at suppressing p21WAF transcriptional activity.
These results demonstrate that RhoA geranylgeranylation is required for
its biological activity and that the nature of the lipid modification
is not critical.
Small G proteins of the Ras superfamily are regulatory proteins
whose activity is controlled by a GDP/GTP cycle. Several members of the
Ras superfamily are regulators of signaling pathways that control cell
growth, differentiation, and oncogenic transformation as well as actin
cytoskeletal organization (1). The Rho protein branch of this
superfamily includes at least eight distinct Rho families (RhoA, B, C,
D, and G, Rac1 and 2, TC10, Cdc42, and Rnd1, 2, and 3) (2) that are
regulated by Rho-GTPase activating proteins and a large family of
guanine nucleotide exchange factors of the Dbl family proteins.
Moreover Rho guanine nucleotide dissociation inhibitors
(RhoGDIs)1 stabilize the
inactive GDP-bound form of the Rho proteins. Rho proteins notably
regulate signal transduction from cell surface receptors to
intracellular molecules and are involved in a variety of cellular
processes including cell morphology (3), motility (4), cytokinesis (5,
6), cell proliferation (7, 8), and tumor progression (9-11).
Ras and Rho proteins are post-translationally modified by the
isoprenoid lipids, farnesyl, and geranylgeranyl (12). Two prenyltransferases, farnesyltransferase (FTase) and
geranylgeranyltransferase I (GGTase I), catalyze the covalent
attachment of the farnesyl and geranylgeranyl groups, respectively, to
the carboxyl-terminal cysteine of proteins ending in a CAAX
motif (C is a cysteine, A usually aliphatic amino acid, and
X any amino acid). FTase prefers CAAX sequences
where X is a serine, methionine, cysteine, alanine, or
glutamine, as in Ras or in nuclear lamins (13-15). When X
is a leucine or isoleucine the protein, as in the Rho/Rac family of
proteins, is geranylgeranylated by GGTase I (16, 17). Protein prenylation is important in targeting proteins to cellular membranes but also in protein-protein interactions (18-20). This process appeared to be critical for the oncoprotein Ras functions as observed with the dependence of its transforming activity on prenylation (21,
22). Hence, over the past decade the functional role of protein
prenylation has been intensively studied for Ras, while a few studies
took interest in the other proteins. It has been shown that
geranylgeranylation of RhoA is required for its correct subcellular
localization (23) and for interaction with its GDP/GTP cycle
regulators, guanine nucleotide dissociation inhibitor and guanine
nucleotide exchange factor (24, 25). Furthermore, RhoA prenylation is
needed for phospholipase D activation (26, 27) and potentiation
of AP-1 transcription (28). However, although it was demonstrated that
the prenylation of the highly homologous Rho protein, RhoB, is required
for its cell transforming function but not its ability to activate
serum response element-dependent transcription (29),
whether RhoA geranylgeranylation is required for suppression of
p21WAF, induction of proliferation, and cytoskeleton
organization was still not established. It was only shown that
inhibition of protein geranylgeranylation by the GGTase I inhibitor,
GGTI-298, resulted in G0/G1 cell cycle arrest,
induction of p21WAF transcription, programmed cell death,
and disorganization of actin cytoskeleton (30-32). Similar effects
observed with the Clostridum botulinum C3 exoenzyme,
a specific inhibitor of Rho A, B, and C proteins (32-34), as well as
with a dominant negative mutants of RhoA (7, 32) have suggested a role
of Rho proteins in these process.
Specific isoprenoids may facilitate distinct consequences for protein
functions. Hence, normal Ras function is critically dependent on
modification by a farnesyl group, and a geranylgeranylated normal Ras
protein appeared to be a potent inhibitor of cellular proliferation
(35). In contrast either a C15 or a C20 isoprenoid can promote membrane
interaction of the oncoprotein Ras necessary for triggering the cell
transformation (35-37). On the other hand, it was demonstrated that a
specific prenylation of the In this manuscript, we determined whether RhoA prenylation is required
for its activity on cytoskeleton organization, proliferation, transcription, and transformation. Furthermore, we also investigated whether the nature of the prenyl group (i.e. farnesyl
versus geranylgeranyl) influences the biological activities
of RhoA. To this end, we generated RhoA mutants by deleting the
CAAX sequence to produce an unprenylated protein as well as
by mutating the CAAX box to produce farnesylated RhoA.
Plasmid Constructions--
Standard polymerase chain reaction
mutagenesis techniques were used to generate plasmids coding for RhoA
with the wild type (RhoA-CLVL), farnesylated, (RhoA-CVLS), or deleted
(RhoA-
The coding region of RhoGDI-1 was isolated by reverse
transcription-polymerase chain reaction from human fibroblasts by using specific primers (forward primer,
5'-GCTAAGCTTGGGATCCGCTGAGCAGGAG-3', and reverse primer,
5'-CCGGAATTCGGCTCAGTCCTTCCAGTCCTTCTTGATG-3') and subcloned into
the bacterial glutathione S-transferase (GST) expression
vector pGST-Parallel2 (generously provided by P. Sheffield) as an
BamHI/EcoRI fragment.
pSRE was provided by Dr. R. Jove (H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa,
FL) and p21P containing the full-length sequence of p21WAF
promoter was provided by Dr. X.-F. Wang (Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC). pCMV- Cell Culture and Transfection--
COS-7 and NIH-3T3 cells were
grown in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) containing 10%
FCS, at 37 °C in a humidified incubator containing 5%
CO2. COS-7 cells and NIH-3T3 cell lines transiently and
stably expressing, respectively, the RhoA mutants Ha-RasL61 or
Ha-RasL61/V14RhoA were generated by transfection using
LipofectAMINETM Reagent Plus method as indicated by the
supplier (Life Technologies, Inc.), followed by selection for NIH-3T3
cell lines with 200 µg/ml of ZeocinTM (Cayla S.A.) for
RhoA, 1 mg/ml of Geneticin® (Life Technologies, Inc.) for Ha-RasL61
and 200 µg/ml of ZeocinTM plus 1 mg/ml of Geneticin® for
Ha-RasL61/RhoA. Cell clones were expanded into mass culture, and RhoA
and Ha-RasL61 protein expression were analyzed by Western blotting (as
described below).
Prenylation Status Analysis--
NIH-3T3 cell lines expressing
the RhoA constructs were plated in DMEM, 10% FCS with 3 × 105 cells in 100-mm Petri dishes on day 1 and treated with
either vehicle, 10 µM FTI-277 or 10 µM
GGTI-298, on days 2 and 3. The cells were harvested on day 4 and lysed
in lysis buffer (30 mM Hepes, pH 7.5, 1% Triton X-100,
10% glycerol, 10 mM NaCl, 25 mM NaF, 5 mM MgCl2, 2 mM NaVO4, 1 mM EDTA, 10 µg/ml trypsin inhibitor, 25 µg/ml
leupeptin, 10 µg/ml pepstatin, 2 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, 6.4 mg/ml phosphate substrate; Sigma 104®). 30 µg
of the cleared lysates were separated on a 12.5% SDS-polyacrylamide gel, blotted to nitrocellulose membranes (Gelman), and incubated with
antibodies against RhoA (26-C4, Santa Cruz Biotechnology), Rap1A/Krev-1
(C-065, Santa Cruz Biotechnology), or Ha-Ras (C-20, Santa Cruz
Biotechnology), respectively. Detection was performed using
peroxidase-conjugated secondary antibodies (Bio-Rad) and an ECL
chemiluminescence detection kit (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech)
Separation of Cytosol and Membrane Fractions with Triton
X-114--
Cells were harvested in 20 mM Tris, pH 8, 5 mM MgCl2, 10 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, with 1 mM dithiothreitol, 1% Triton
X-114, and protease and phosphatase inhibitors as above. Membrane and
cytosolic proteins were separated in two phases (pellet containing
membranes and supernatant containing cytosolic proteins) by Triton
X-114 partitioning at 30 °C as described by Bordier (43), which were separated by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and blotted to
nitrocellulose membranes. Nitrocellulose membranes were then incubated
with antibodies against the Myc tag of RhoA proteins (mouse anti-c-Myc
from Calbiochem). Detection was performed as described above.
In Vitro Interaction of RhoA with RhoGDI-1--
GST-RhoGDI-1
fusion protein expression and purification was done as described by
Sheffield et al. (44). For in vitro interaction assay 30 µl of glutathione-Sepharose beads (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech) were preincubated with 100 µg of bacterial overexpressed GST-RhoGDI soluble extract for 2 h at 4 °C, washed with
interaction buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl pH 8.5, 150 mM NaCl), then incubated with 100 µg of cell homogenates
diluted in 500 µl of interaction buffer, and incubated overnight at
4 °C. Sepharose beads were next washed twice with interaction buffer
and resuspended directly in Laemmli buffer. RhoA content was analyzed
by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by Western blot with
anti-Myc antibodies.
Fluorescence--
Cells were seeded on glass coverslips into
six-well plates (Nunc) at a density of 8 × 104
cells/well in DMEM 10% FCS. 48 h later cells were serum-starved for 48 h. Then cells were fixed in 3% paraformaldehyde and
permeabilized into 0.1% Triton X-100 in phosphate-buffered saline.
Actin fibers were detected by incubation with
tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate-labeled phalloidin
(Molecular Probes). RhoA and vinculin were detected with anti-c-Myc
(Calbiochem) or anti-vinculin antibodies (Sigma Immuno Chemical),
respectively, and fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated anti-mouse IgG
antibody (Sigma Immuno Chemical). Cells were viewed on a Zeiss Axiophot
microscope, and pictures were taken with a Princeton camera.
Cell Growth Determination--
NIH-3T3 cells were seeded at 2000 cells/well in a 96-well plates six times on day 0 in DMEM containing
10% or 2.5% FCS, and the amount of cells was evaluated on day 0 (6 h
post-plating) and at the intervals indicated in the figure legends by a
MTT test as described previously (45).
Focus Formation Assay--
NIH-3T3 cell lines expressing the
V14RhoA constructs were seeded at 25000 cells in a 25-cm2
flask. Cell foci were scored 15 days after confluence after fixing with
AFA (ethanol/formol/acetic acid, 75/20/5) and staining with crystal violet.
Plating Efficiency Determination--
For plating efficiency
assays, NIH-3T3 cells were seeded at 400 cells/60-mm culture dishes in
DMEM 10% or 2.5% FCS. Cell plating efficiency was scored 10 or 15 days later, respectively, by fixing with AFA and staining with crystal violet.
Anchorage-independent Growth Assays--
Cells were seeded at
16,000 cells/well in 12-well plates in triplicate in 0.3% agar over a
0.6% agar layer as described elsewhere (46). Cells were fed twice
weekly until colonies grew to a suitable size for observation (about 12 days). Colonies were photographed after 4 h of incubation with 1 mg/ml MTT in DMEM at 37 °C. The growth of colonies of cell
lines expressing V14RhoA or Ha-RasL61/V14RhoA constructs was compared
with the control colonies expressing Ha-RasL61.
Regulation of SRE and p21WAF Promoter
Activities--
NIH-3T3 cells were seeded at 2 × 105/well in six-well plates. 24 h later they were
transfected with 0.5 µg of pSRE or p21WAF, 0.2 µg of
pCMV- Prenylation Status and Subcellular Localization of RhoA Mutants in
NIH-3T3 and COS-7 Cell Transfectants--
To evaluate the role of
prenyl group and of its nature (C15 farnesyl or C20 geranylgeranyl) in
RhoA functions we generated RhoA mutants by altering the
CAAX sequence to render RhoA a substrate either of
geranylgeranyltransferase I or farnesyltransferase or not prenylated.
Using standard polymerase chain reaction mutagenesis, the CLVL sequence
of RhoA (Rho-CLVL) was either replaced by the CAAX box of
the farnesylated Ha-Ras protein (RhoA-CVLS) or deleted (RhoA-
We determined the prenylation status of each V14RhoA mutant by using
FTI-277 and GGTI-298, specific inhibitors of FTase and GGTase I,
respectively. NIH-3T3 cells expressing either V14RhoA-CLVL or
V14RhoA-CVLS were treated with FTI-277 or GGTI-298, and the lysates
were analyzed for inhibition of prenylation of Ha-Ras (exclusively
farnesylated control), Rap1A (exclusively geranylgeranylated control),
RhoA-CLVL, and RhoA-CVLS, by Western blotting as described under
"Experimental Procedures." As expected, treatment with FTI-277 resulted in inhibition of farnesylation of Ha-Ras but had no effects on
the geranylgeranylation of Rap1A (Fig. 1). Similarly, GGTI-298 inhibited the geranylgeranylation of Rap1A without any effects on the
farnesylation of Ha-Ras. Fig. 1 also shows that FTI-277 inhibited the
prenylation of RhoA-CVLS but not RhoA-CLVL, whereas GGTI-298 inhibited
the prenylation of RhoA-CLVL but not RhoA-CVLS. These results suggest
that RhoA-CVLS is exclusively farnesylated, whereas RhoA-CLVL is
exclusively geranylgeranylated.
The prenylation status of a protein being important for its proper
subcellular localization (23), we checked the localization of the RhoA
mutants by immunofluorescence. V14RhoA-CLVL cells displayed a diffuse
staining throughout the cytoplasmic compartment (Fig.
2A) with an increased staining
in the perinuclear area of some cells. RhoA-CVLS cells showed a similar
pattern of fluorescence (Fig. 2A). In contrast RhoA-
We next analyzed the subcellular localization of RhoA mutants by
Western blot after separation of cell homogenates in cytosol and
membrane proteins by Triton X114 partitioning as described under
"Experimental Procedures." As shown in Fig. 2B
unprenylated V14RhoA was essentially associated with the cytosolic
fraction, whereas prenylated RhoA, either farnesylated or
geranylgeranylated, was distributed in both fractions. About 40% of
prenylated V14RhoA expressed in NIH-3T3 cells was observed in membrane
fraction. When analyzed in COS-7 cells after transient expression,
prenylated V14RhoA display a similar subcellular distribution, whereas
wild type RhoA was essentially found in cytosol fraction (data not shown), illustrating the shift toward the membrane of RhoA GTPase after
activation but only when prenylated. These results together confirmed
that prenylation is essential for proper protein subcellular localization and also indicated that farnesyl can substitute for geranylgeranyl without any dramatic effect on RhoA subcellular localization.
Interaction of RhoA with its Guanine Dissociation Inhibitor,
RhoGDI-1--
Although it was well established that isoprenoid
modification of RhoA is required for interaction with RhoGDI (24, 47), it is still not known whether prenylation of RhoA has to be specific. To assess the role of isoprenoid the in vitro interaction of
RhoA mutants with GST-RhoGDI-1 was examined. Because it was described that RhoGDI-1 binds poorly RhoA-GTP (48, 49), we used COS-7 cells
transfected transiently with wild type RhoA bearing or deleted of the
different CAAX boxes. We found as expected that
nonprenylated RhoA was unable to bind GST-RhoGDI-1 (Fig.
3). In contrast geranylgeranylated as
well as farnesylated RhoA strongly interacted with GST-RhoGDI-1. As
illustrated by the quantitation of the signal of precipitated RhoA
normalized by the signal of total RhoA on Western blot, GST-RhoGDI-1 appeared to bind equal levels of both farnesylated and
geranylgeranylated RhoA (Fig. 3).
Role of RhoA Prenylation on Cytoskeleton Organization--
The Rho
protein family whose members include RhoA has been shown to influence a
number of cellular processes including actin stress fiber organization,
cell adhesion, cell proliferation, and transformation. We next
determined whether prenylation and moreover the nature of the added
prenyl group play a role on RhoA implication on actin stress fibers and
focal adhesions.
We observed that whereas NIH-3T3 fibroblasts transfected with the empty
vector (mock) or V14RhoA-
To examine the effect of the V14RhoA mutants on stress fibers and focal
adhesions, the cells were serum-starved for 48 h before analysis.
Indeed removal of growth factors and LPA (a well known stimulator of
RhoA functions) from culture medium led to the reduction of actin
stress fiber content in mock and V14RhoA- Role of Prenylation of RhoA on Cell Growth Properties--
We next
assessed the role of the prenylation of RhoA on cell growth.
Mock-transfected NIH-3T3 cells and those expressing V14RhoA-CLVL, V14RhoA-CVLS, or V14RhoA-
We next determined whether the ability of RhoA to transform cells
depends on its geranylgeranylation and whether farnesylated RhoA
remains transforming. To this end, we have compared various V14RhoA
mutants in focus formation, plating efficiency, and
anchorage-independent growth assays. For the focus formation assay,
NIH-3T3 cells stably expressing V14RhoA mutants were seeded at 25,000 cells/25-cm2 flask, and cell foci were scored 12 days
later. Whereas mock and V14RhoA- Role of RhoA Prenylation on Transcriptional Activity--
RhoA was
described to stimulate the SRE activity (51) as well as to repress
p21WAF transcription (32). Our recent results suggested
indirectly that geranylgeranylation of RhoA was required for its
activity on p21WAF transcription (32). To confirm this
hypothesis we compared the respective ability of V14RhoA-CLVL, -CVLS,
and -
To determine whether or not prenylation was required for the role of
RhoA on SRE-mediated transcription, we have performed similar
experiments co-transfecting NIH-3T3 wild type cells with luciferase
under the control of SRE and RhoA expression plasmids. Cells were
incubated 24 h post-transfection with DMEM supplemented with 0.5%
FCS for the next 18 h. Then as a control of SRE activity FCS was
added for 4 h. As expected, addition of FCS resulted in a
4-5-fold stimulation of luciferase activity, whereas the expression of
constitutively active geranylgeranylated RhoA induced a 3-fold increase
of luciferase activity (Fig. 8B). Then to directly compare the capacity of the prenylated and unprenylated RhoA to regulate SRE
transcriptional activity, the luciferase induction was normalized by
RhoA protein expression determined in parallel by Western blot. As
shown in Fig. 8C, the geranylgeranylated RhoA-CLVL and the farnesylated RhoA-CVLS displayed a similar effect on SRE activity. Surprinsingly RhoA- Although a number of studies showed that functions of Ras proteins
depend on its farnesylation little is known about the role of
prenylation for geranylgeranylated proteins. Using CAAX box mutants of RhoA, we demonstrated that prenylation of RhoA is essential for most but not all of its cellular functions. Furthermore, replacing the geranylgeranyl group by a farnesyl had little effect on the biological activities of RhoA.
The carboxyl-terminal amino acid sequence of the protein, the
CAAX box, appears to contain all the critical determinants
for interaction with a specific prenyl-transferase (15). The only substitution of the last three carboxyl-terminal amino acids of prenylated proteins such as Ras (15), Prenylated RhoA was detected in the cytoplasmic compartment in NIH-3T3
cells stably transfected with RhoA, as previously observed in Rat-2
cells or in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells (23, 53). Adamson et
al. (23) showed that only the cysteine within the CAAX
box is important for the correct intracellular localization of RhoA
protein. Indeed its substitution for serine lead to a marked reduction
of the normal cytoplasmic fluorescence in Madin-Darby canine kidney
cells in favor of a strong nuclear localization. We obtained similar
results in NIH-3T3 transfected with RhoA deleted of its CAAX
box. Whereas the prenylated RhoA localized preferentially in the
cytosol, the RhoA- It was well established that regulators of small G protein activity
interact only with the post-translationally modified protein (4, 24,
25, 59). For example RhoGDI inhibits the dissociation of the GDP bound
form of RhoA only if the protein is prenylated (24). Similar
prenyl-dependent protein interactions should be required
for the association of the RhoA-GTP bound form with its effectors and
thus for its biological roles such as actin cytoskeleton organization
and cell proliferation and transformation control. Nevertheless the
role of isoprenylation in the control of stress fibers formation was
still contradictory. Although it was shown that HMG-CoA reductase
inhibitors induce cell rounding and breakdown of the actin cytoskeleton
in cultured cells (60-62), suggesting a role of prenylated protein in
stress fiber control, Kranenburg et al. (56) showed
that isoprenylation is not required for stress fiber formation in
N1E-115 neuronal cells. Herein we showed with a CAAX box
mutant that prenylated RhoA ensured stress fiber and focal adhesion
maintenance in NIH-3T3 cells, whereas unprenylated form of RhoA did
not. Furthermore we demonstrated that the role of RhoA on NIH-3T3 cell
proliferation and transformation was also dependent on the prenyl
group. Hence, the unprenylated form of RhoA was not able to promote
cell proliferation or anchorage-dependent cell growth,
whereas farnesylated and geranylgeranylated RhoA acted similarly on
cell cytoskeleton and proliferation.
RhoA protein has been suggested to regulate cell cycle progression by
modulating the protein stability of cell cycle regulators such as
p27KIP1 (63) or transcription of specific genes such as
cyclin D1 (64), c-fos (51), or p21WAF (32). We
found (32) that the expression of constitutively activated RhoA
down-regulated p21WAF promoter. Similarly Marshall and
co-workers (65) showed that induction of DNA synthesis by oncogenic
Ras required Rho activity for the suppression of
p21WAF induction. As for its role on cell proliferation, we
showed that overexpression of only prenylated RhoA was necessary to
down-regulate p21WAF promoter, whereas the unprenylated
form was inert.
It has been shown that the small G proteins Cdc42, Rac1, RhoA, and RhoB
can also activate the transcription of c-fos via the SRE
site of its promoter in a manner dependent upon SRF (29, 51). Whereas
prenylation of RhoB is required for its cell transforming functions,
its ability to activate SRE-mediated transcription is independent of
prenylation (29). Although RhoA is ~85% identical to RhoB, it is not
known whether unprenylated RhoA also would be able to induced
SRF-mediated transcription. In this report, we showed that despite
their different subcellular localization, prenylated and unprenylated
forms of RhoA were capable to induce SRE-mediated transcriptional
activity, as it has been shown for RhoB (29). But although Lebowitz
et al. (29) observed that both prenylated and unprenylated
forms of RhoB were equipotent at inducing transcription, we showed that
the unprenylated form of RhoA was less efficacious that the prenylated
form. Some possible explanations of this discrepancy between
prenylation requirement for p21WAF and SRE transcription
would be that active RhoA may find effectors that trigger the SRF
signaling pathway in many compartments of the cell or that because of
its overexpression, low quantities of unprenylated RhoA could localized
properly. However similar results should be expected for the
down-regulation of p21WAF promoter. By contrast the
prenylation of RhoA is required for this later effect. This suggests
that the signaling pathways triggering either p21WAF or SRE
transcription are separable and that the interaction with effectors for
p21WAF transcription requires prenylation of RhoA, whereas
interaction with effectors for SRE-mediated transcription do not.
Moreover, our results are in agreement with the hypothesis previously
advanced by Lebowitz et al. (29) that SRF-mediated
transcriptional activation by Rho proteins is insufficient for transformation.
Although the farnesylated and geranylgeranylated RhoA displayed a
similar localization, the presence of the farnesyl group could impair
some of RhoA functions and/or may dictate different biological
functions as suggested for RhoB protein (66). But our data did not
evidence a significative difference between the farnesylated and the
geranylgeranylated RhoA behavior on cell cytoskeleton, growth
properties, or transcription. The only faint differences we noticed
were on cell plating efficiency and SRE transcription, where
geranylgeranylated RhoA appeared a little more efficacious. Likely it
was demonstrated that the farnesylated and geranylgeranylated forms of
Ras or Rap1A/Krev-1 displayed similar functions on cell transformation
(35). In contrast it appeared a marked distinction between
farnesylation and geranylgeranylation in G We described previously a potent and selective GGTase I inhibitor
GGTI-298 that blocks human tumors in G0/G1, induces apoptosis, and
inhibits the tumor growth in nude mice xenografts (30, 46, 67). More
recently we showed that GGTI-298 strongly induces p21WAF
accumulation in tumor cells (31) and suggested that RhoA is a target
for GGTI-298 (32). Here we demonstrated that the prenylation of RhoA is
necessary for its transforming activity, enforcing the idea that RhoA
is an important target of GGTase I inhibitors.
We are grateful to Dr. A. Hall, Dr. J. Baar, Dr. R. Jove, Dr. P. Sheffield, and Dr. X.-F. Wang for
providing us with pEXVmyc-tagV14RhoA, pCMV-intronA, pSRE pGST parallel,
and p21P plasmids, respectively.
*
This work was supported by the French Ministère de
l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, the Groupe de
Recherche de l'Institut Claudius Regaud, and the Ligue Nationale de
Lutte contre le Cancer and by NCI, National Institutes of Health
Grant CA67771.The costs of publication of this
article were defrayed in part by the
payment of page charges. The article
must therefore be hereby marked
"advertisement" in
accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section
1734 solely to indicate this fact.
Published, JBC Papers in Press, July 13, 2000, DOI 10.1074/jbc.M005264200
2
R. Baron, E. Fourcade, I. Lajoie-Mazenc, C. Allal, R. Barbaras, G. Favre, J. C. Faye, and A. Pradines, manuscript
in preparation.
The abbreviations used are:
RhoGDI(s), Rho
guanine nucleotide dissociation inhibitor(s);
FTase, farnesyltransferase;
GGTase I, geranylgeranyltransferase I;
GST, glutathione S-transferase;
DMEM, Dulbecco's modified
Eagle's medium;
FCS, fetal calf serum;
SRE, serum response element;
MTT, (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium
bromide.
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