PAK1 and PAK4 are members of the p-21 activated kinase family of serine/threonine kinases. PAK1 has previously been implicated in both the formation and disassembly of invasive cell protrusions, termed invadopodia. We recently reported a novel role for PAK4 during invadopodia maturation and confirmed a specific role for PAK1 in invadopodia formation; findings we will review here. Moreover, we found that PAK4 induction of maturation is delivered via interaction with the RhoA regulator PDZ-RhoGEF. We can now reveal that loss of PAK4 expression leads to changes in invadopodia dynamics. Ultimately we propose that PAK4 but not PAK1 is a key mediator of RhoA activity and provide further evidence that modulation of PAK4 expression levels leads to changes in RhoA activity.
Keywords: PAK; RhoA; invadopodia.