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The semaphorin 3A receptor may directly regulate the activity of small GTPases
Author(s) -
Rohm Beate,
Rahim Belquis,
Kleiber Bedriska,
Hovatta Iiris,
Püschel Andreas W.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(00)02240-7
Subject(s) - semaphorin , gtpase , microbiology and biotechnology , plexin , chemistry , receptor , neuroscience , biology , biochemistry
The axon guidance signal semaphorin 3A induces the rapid collapse of growth cones by activating a receptor complex that contains neuropilin‐1 as the ligand‐binding and a plexin as the signal‐transducing subunit. Here we show that plexins bind Rho‐like GTPases and may directly regulate their activity. The cytoplasmic domain of plexins shows sequence similarity to GTPase activating proteins (GAPs) and mutation of two arginines that correspond to the catalytic residues of Ras GAPs inactivates plexin‐A1. Our data suggest that plexins may be integral membrane proteins with an intrinsic GAP activity that is essential for their ability to induce growth cone collapse.