Skip to main content
. 2015 Jan 8;11(1):e1004597. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1004597

Figure 3. KapB activation of MK2 can lead to RhoA through intermediates hsp27 and p115RhoGEF.

Figure 3

A recently described signaling pathway links activated MK2 to RhoA through intermediates hsp27 and p115RhoGEF (63). Hsp27 phosphorylation by MK2 is an important ‘switch’ that allows local recruitment of p115RhoGEF to a signaling complex, promoting RhoA activity. We hypothesize that KapB mediated activation of this pathway contributes to several downstream effects of active RhoA.To address the importance of individual proteins within this signaling pathway in the mechanism of KapB-mediated RhoA activation, PB dispersion and actin cytoskeletal rearrangements, we undertook several approaches to eliminate expression or activity of candidate proteins. These included the co-expression of dominant negative (DN) versions of RhoA and hsp27, co-expression of shRNAs designed to reduce expression of p115RhoGEF and MK2 using RNA interference, and chemical inhibitors that were specific for RhoA (C3) and its downstream effector kinase ROCK (Y-27632).