Rho Family of Ras-Like GTPases in Early-Branching Animals

Silvestar Beljan; Maja Herak Bosnar; Helena Ćetković

doi:10.3390/cells9102279

Rho Family of Ras-Like GTPases in Early-Branching Animals

Cells. 2020 Oct 13;9(10):2279. doi: 10.3390/cells9102279.

Authors

Silvestar Beljan^{1

2}, Maja Herak Bosnar³, Helena Ćetković¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Molecular Biology, Ruđer Bošković Institute, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
² Division of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
³ Division of Molecular Medicine, Ruđer Bošković Institute, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia.

Abstract

Non-bilaterian animals consist of four phyla; Porifera, Cnidaria, Ctenophora, and Placozoa. These early-diverging animals are crucial for understanding the evolution of the entire animal lineage. The Rho family of proteins make up a major branch of the Ras superfamily of small GTPases, which function as key molecular switches that play important roles in converting and amplifying external signals into cellular responses. This review represents a compilation of the current knowledge on Rho-family GTPases in non-bilaterian animals, the available experimental data about their biochemical characteristics and functions, as well as original bioinformatics analysis, in order to gain a general insight into the evolutionary history of Rho-family GTPases in simple animals.

Keywords: Cdc24; Cnidaria; Ctenophora; Miro; Placozoa; Porifera; Rac; Rho; Rho GTPases; RhoBTB; non-bilaterian animals.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Models, Biological
Phylogeny*
Signal Transduction
rho GTP-Binding Proteins / chemistry
rho GTP-Binding Proteins / metabolism*

Substances

rho GTP-Binding Proteins