CED-12/ELMO, a novel member of the CrkII/Dock180/Rac pathway, is required for phagocytosis and cell migration.
Gumienny TL,
Brugnera E,
Tosello-Trampont AC,
Kinchen JM,
Haney LB,
Nishiwaki K,
Walk SF,
Nemergut ME,
Macara IG,
Francis R,
Schedl T,
Qin Y,
Van Aelst L,
Hengartner MO,
Ravichandran KS.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11743, USA.
The C. elegans genes ced-2, ced-5, and ced-10, and their mammalian homologs crkII, dock180, and rac1, mediate cytoskeletal rearrangements during phagocytosis of apoptotic cells and cell motility. Here, we describe an additional member of this signaling pathway, ced-12, and its mammalian homologs, elmo1 and elmo2. In C. elegans, CED-12 is required for engulfment of dying cells and for cell migrations. In mammalian cells, ELMO1 functionally cooperates with CrkII and Dock180 to promote phagocytosis and cell shape changes. CED-12/ELMO-1 binds directly to CED-5/Dock180; this evolutionarily conserved complex stimulates a Rac-GEF, leading to Rac1 activation and cytoskeletal rearrangements. These studies identify CED-12/ELMO as an upstream regulator of Rac1 that affects engulfment and cell migration from C. elegans to mammals.
PMID: 11595183 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]