ZAK negatively regulates RhoGDIbeta-induced Rac1-mediated hypertrophic growth and cell migration.

RhoGDIbeta, a Rho GDP dissociation inhibitor, induced hypertrophic growth and cell migration in a cultured cardiomyoblast cell line, H9c2. We demonstrated that RhoGDIbeta plays a previously undefined role in regulating Rac1 expression through transcription to induce hypertrophic growth and cell migration and that these functions are blocked by the expression of a dominant-negative form of Rac1. We also demonstrated that knockdown of RhoGDIbeta expression by RNA interference blocked RhoGDIbeta-induced Rac1 expression and cell migration. We demonstrated that the co-expression of ZAK and RhoGDIbeta in cells resulted in an inhibition in the activity of ZAK to induce ANF expression. Knockdown of ZAK expression in ZAK-RhoGDIbeta-expressing cells by ZAK-specific RNA interference restored the activities of RhoGDIbeta.

RhoGDIbeta-induced hypertrophic growth in H9c2 cells is negatively regulated by ZAK.

We found that overexpression of RhoGDIbeta, a Rho GDP dissociation inhibitor, induced hypertrophic growth and suppressed cell cycle progression in a cultured cardiomyoblast cell line. Knockdown of RhoGDIbeta expression by RNA interference blocked hypertrophic growth. We further demonstrated that RhoGDIbeta physically interacts with ZAK and is phosphorylated by ZAK in vitro, and this phosphorylation negatively regulates RhoGDIbeta functions. Moreover, the ZAK-RhoGDIbeta interaction may maintain ZAK in an inactive hypophosphorylated form. These two proteins could negatively regulate one another such that ZAK suppresses RhoGDIbeta functions through phosphorylation and RhoGDIbeta counteracts the effects of ZAK by physical interaction. Knockdown of ZAK expression in ZAK- and RhoGDIbeta-expressing cells by ZAK-specific RNA interference restored the full functions of RhoGDIbeta.