Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
J Mol Cell Biol. 2010 Apr;2(2):68-9. doi: 10.1093/jmcb/mjp039. Epub 2009 Dec 11.
Rho GTPases, including RhoA, Rac1 and Cdc42, are key regulators of cell migration in animals. In a recent issue of Nature, two papers present delicate studies on precise roles and spatiotemporal coordination of Rho GTPases in live cells, using either a photoactivatable Rac1 or specific biosensors, together with computational multiplexing method. In addition to implications in cell migration, analytical tools and methods used in these works can also be extended into other live cell studies on complex cellular/molecular events.
Rho GTPases,包括 RhoA、Rac1 和 Cdc42,是动物细胞迁移的关键调节因子。在最近一期的《自然》杂志上,两篇论文使用光活化 Rac1 或特定的生物传感器,结合计算多重化方法,对 Rho GTPases 在活细胞中的精确作用和时空协调进行了精细的研究。除了对细胞迁移的意义外,这些工作中使用的分析工具和方法也可以扩展到其他关于复杂细胞/分子事件的活细胞研究中。