Abstract

Vav family members function as remarkable scaffold proteins that exhibit both GDP/GTP exchange activity for Rho/Rac GTPases and numerous protein-protein interactions via three adaptor Src-homology domains. The exchange activity is under the unique regulation by phosphorylation of tyrosine residues hidden by intra-molecular interactions. Deletion of the autoinhibitory N-terminal region results in an oncogenic protein, onco-Vav, leading to a potent activation of Rac GTPases whereas the proto-oncogene barely leads to transformation. Substitution of conserved residues of the SH2-SH3 adaptor region in onco-Vav reverses oncogenicity. While a unique substitution D797N did not affect transformation induced by onco-Vav, we demonstrate that this single substitution leads to transformation in the Vav1 proto-oncogene highlighting the pivotal role of the adaptor region. Moreover, we identified the cell junction protein β-catenin as a new Vav1 interacting partner. We show that the oncogenicity of activated Vav1 proto-oncogene is associated with a non-degradative phosphorylation of β-catenin at residues important for its functions and its redistribution along the cell membrane in fibroblasts. In addition, a similar interaction is evidenced in epithelial lung cancer cells expressing ectopically Vav1. In these cells, Vav1 is also involved in the modulation of β-catenin phosphorylation. Altogether, our data highlight that only a single mutation in the proto-oncogene Vav1 enhances tumorigenicity.

Highlights

  • The Vav1 proto-oncogene has a restricted hematopoietic expression and exhibits both GTP/GDP exchange activities (GEF) for Rho family GTPases and adaptor functions within signalling complexes [1, 2]

  • We analysed a selection of Vav1 proto-oncogene CSH3 mutants: D797N, A789N and G830V, for their capacity to induce foci of transformed cells when expressed in NIH3T3 cells and compared them to onco-Vav (∆1-66)

  • This study highlights the essential role of the adaptor region of Vav1 as a scaffold domain for immune receptors signalosomes and as a tranformation potentiator

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Summary

Introduction

The Vav proto-oncogene has a restricted hematopoietic expression and exhibits both GTP/GDP exchange activities (GEF) for Rho family GTPases and adaptor functions within signalling complexes [1, 2]. Vav proteins display a number of characteristic structural domains with homology for: Calponin (CH), Dbl (DH), Pleckstrin (PH) and Src (SH2 and SH3) altogether with acidic residuesrich (AcR) and cysteine-rich (CR) motives. These domains mediate interactions with membrane receptors, www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget signalling intermediates, cytoskeleton related proteins and nuclear factors [5]. Vav proteins exhibit a unique regulation of the GEF activity through receptor-mediated phosphorylation of tyrosine residues (pY) present in the AcR domain [6]

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