The future of regenerative medicine relies on our understanding of stem cells which are essential for tissue/organ generation and regeneration to maintain and/or restore tissue homeostasis. Rho family GTPases are known regulators of a wide variety of cellular processes related to cytoskeletal dynamics, polarity and gene transcription. In the last decade, major new advances have been made in understanding the regulatory role and mechanism of Rho GTPases in self-renewal, differentiation, migration, and lineage specification in tissue-specific signaling mechanisms in various stem cell types to regulate embryonic development, adult tissue homeostasis, and tissue regeneration upon stress or damage. Importantly, implication of Rho GTPases and their upstream regulators or downstream effectors in the transformation, migration, invasion and tumorigenesis of diverse cancer stem cells highlights the potential of Rho GTPase targeting in cancer therapy. In this review, we discuss recent evidence of Rho GTPase signaling in the regulation of embryonic stem cells, multiple somatic stem cells, and cancer stem cells. We propose promising areas where Rho GTPase pathways may serve as useful targets for stem cell manipulation and related future therapies.
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December 2021
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Fuelled by the ‘resolution revolution’, cryo-EM has transformed our molecular understanding of transcriptional regulation in bacteria. As an example, Wood and colleagues (pp. 2695–2710) present the sialic acid gene repressor NanR (PDB-6WFG), where cryo-EM revealed the DNA-binding mode. “E. coli Bacteria” by NIAID is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Cover artwork courtesy of Christopher Horne.
Review Article|
December 02 2021
Role of Rho GTPases in stem cell regulation
Zheng Zhang;
Zheng Zhang
1Division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology, Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45229, U.S.A.
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Ming Liu;
Ming Liu
2Department of Abdominal Oncology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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Yi Zheng
1Division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology, Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45229, U.S.A.
Correspondence: Yi Zheng (yi.zheng@cchmc.org)
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Received:
September 29 2021
Revision Received:
November 17 2021
Accepted:
November 18 2021
Online ISSN: 1470-8752
Print ISSN: 0300-5127
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society
2021
Biochem Soc Trans (2021) 49 (6): 2941–2955.
Article history
Received:
September 29 2021
Revision Received:
November 17 2021
Accepted:
November 18 2021
Citation
Zheng Zhang, Ming Liu, Yi Zheng; Role of Rho GTPases in stem cell regulation. Biochem Soc Trans 17 December 2021; 49 (6): 2941–2955. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/BST20211071
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