Regulating axon branch stability: the role of p190 RhoGAP in repressing a retraction signaling pathway. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Mechanisms that regulate axon branch stability are largely unknown. Genome-wide analyses of Rho GTPase activating protein (RhoGAP) function in Drosophila using RNA interference identified p190 RhoGAP as essential for axon stability in mushroom body neurons, the olfactory learning and memory center. p190 inactivation leads to axon branch retraction, a phenotype mimicked by activation of GTPase RhoA and its effector kinase Drok and modulated by the level and phosphorylation of myosin regulatory light chain. Thus, there exists a retraction pathway from RhoA to myosin in maturing neurons, which is normally repressed by p190. Local regulation of p190 could control the structural plasticity of neurons. Indeed, genetic evidence supports negative regulation of p190 by integrin and Src, both implicated in neural plasticity.

publication date

  • October 19, 2001

Research

keywords

  • Axons
  • Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors
  • Nuclear Proteins
  • Signal Transduction

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0035913909

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/s0092-8674(01)00522-0

PubMed ID

  • 11672527

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 107

issue

  • 2