Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Small GTPases. 2022 Jan;13(1):136-140. doi: 10.1080/21541248.2021.1920824. Epub 2021 Apr 29.
Rac1 is a member of the Rho GTPase family and is involved in many cellular processes, particularly the formation of actin-rich membrane protrusions, such as lamellipodia and ruffles. With such a widely studied protein, it is essential that the research community has reliable tools for detecting Rac1 activation both in cellular models and tissues. Using a series of cancer cellular models, we recently demonstrated that a widely used antibody for visualizing active Rac1 (Rac1-GTP) does not recognize Rac1 but instead recognizes vimentin filaments (Baker MJ, J. Biol. Chem. 295:13698-13710, 2020). We believe that this tool has misled the field and impose on the GTPase research community the need to validate published results using this antibody as well as to continue the development of new resources to visualize endogenous active Rac1.
Rac1 是 Rho GTPase 家族的成员，参与许多细胞过程，特别是肌动蛋白丰富的细胞膜突起的形成，如片状伪足和皱襞。由于 Rac1 是一种研究广泛的蛋白，研究界必须拥有可靠的工具来检测细胞模型和组织中 Rac1 的激活。最近，我们使用一系列癌症细胞模型证明，一种广泛用于可视化活性 Rac1（Rac1-GTP）的抗体实际上并不识别 Rac1，而是识别波形蛋白丝（Baker MJ，J. Biol. Chem. 295:13698-13710, 2020）。我们认为，这种工具误导了该领域，并迫使 GTPase 研究界需要使用这种抗体验证已发表的结果，同时继续开发新的资源来可视化内源性活性 Rac1。
