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Comment
. 2012 Sep 3;198(5):769-71.
doi: 10.1083/jcb.201207197.

Stuck in the middle: Rac, adhesion, and cytokinesis

Tim Davies  1 , Julie C Canman
Affiliations
Comment

Stuck in the middle: Rac, adhesion, and cytokinesis

Tim Davies et al. J Cell Biol. .

Abstract

Rho family small GTPases (Rac, RhoA, and Cdc42) function at the core of cytokinesis, the physical division of one cell into two. In this issue, Bastos et al. (2012. J. Cell Biol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201204107) identify a new role for Rac inhibition: to release cell adhesion at the division plane and allow efficient constriction of the contractile ring. They show that the GTPase-activating protein, CYK4, suppresses equatorial cell substrate adhesion by inhibiting Rac and therefore its effectors ARFGEF7 and PAK1/2.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Rac and RhoA signaling pathways during cytokinesis. Components of the Rac pathway revealed by Bastos et al. (2012) are shown in yellow. mDia, mammalian diaphanous; MyoGEF, myosin-interacting guanine nucleotide exchange factor.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Adhesion and cytokinesis. Schematic depicting why Rac-mediated activation of cell adhesion within the division plane inhibits cytokinesis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

References

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