Inhibiting FAK-Paxillin Interaction Reduces Migration and Invadopodia-Mediated Matrix Degradation in Metastatic Melanoma Cells.

The nonreceptor tyrosine kinase FAK is a promising target for solid tumor treatment because it promotes invasion, tumor progression, and drug resistance when overexpressed. Investigating the role of FAK in human melanoma cells, we found that both in situ and metastatic melanoma cells strongly express FAK, where it controls tumor cells' invasiveness by regulating focal adhesion-mediated cell motility. Inhibiting FAK in human metastatic melanoma cells with either siRNA or a small inhibitor targeting the kinase domain impaired migration but led to increased invadopodia formation and extracellular matrix degradation. Using FAK mutated at Y397, we found that this unexpected increase in invadopodia activity is due to the lack of phosphorylation at this residue. To preserve FAK-Src interaction while inhibiting pro-migratory functions of FAK, we found that altering FAK-paxillin interaction, with either FAK mutation in the focal adhesion targeting (FAT) domain or a competitive inhibitor peptide mimicking paxillin LD domains drastically reduces cell migration and matrix degradation by preserving FAK activity in the cytoplasm. In conclusion, our data show that targeting FAK-paxillin interactions could be a potential therapeutic strategy to prevent metastasis formation, and molecules targeting this interface could be alternative to inhibitors of FAK kinase activity which display unexpected effects.

FLIM-FRET Measurements of Protein-Protein Interactions in Live Bacteria.

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) control various key processes in cells. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) combined with Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) provide accurate information about PPIs in live cells. FLIM-FRET relies on measuring the fluorescence lifetime decay of a FRET donor at each pixel of the FLIM image, providing quantitative and accurate information about PPIs and their spatial cellular organizations. We propose here a detailed protocol for FLIM-FRET measurements that we applied to monitor PPIs in live Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the particular case of two interacting proteins expressed with highly different copy numbers to demonstrate the quality and robustness of the technique at revealing critical features of PPIs. This protocol describes in detail all the necessary steps for PPI characterization - starting from bacterial mutant constructions up to the final analysis using recently developed tools providing advanced visualization possibilities for a straightforward interpretation of complex FLIM-FRET data.

FAK regulates dynein localisation and cell polarity in migrating mouse fibroblasts.

BACKGROUND: Fibroblasts executing directional migration position their centrosome, and their Golgi apparatus, in front of the nucleus towards the cell leading edge. Centrosome positioning relative to the nucleus has been associated to mechanical forces exerted on the centrosome by the microtubule-dependent molecular motor cytoplasmic dynein 1, and to nuclear movements such as rearward displacement and rotation events. Dynein has been proposed to regulate the position of the centrosome by exerting pulling forces on microtubules from the cell leading edge, where the motor is enriched during migration. However, the mechanism explaining how dynein acts at the front of the cells has not been elucidated. RESULTS: We present here results showing that the protein Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) interacts with dynein and regulates the enrichment of the dynein/dynactin complex at focal adhesions at the cell the leading edge of migrating fibroblasts. This suggests that focal adhesions provide anchoring sites for dynein during the polarisation process. In support of this, we present evidence indicating that the interaction between FAK and dynein, which is regulated by the phosphorylation of FAK on its Ser732 residue, is required for proper centrosome positioning. Our results further show that the polarisation of the centrosome can occur independently of nuclear movements. Although FAK regulates both nuclear and centrosome motilities, downregulating the interaction between FAK and dynein affects only the nuclear independent polarisation of the centrosome. CONCLUSIONS: Our work highlights the role of FAK as a key player in the regulation of several aspects of cell polarity. We thus propose a model in which the transient localisation of dynein with focal adhesions provides a tuneable mechanism to bias dynein traction forces on microtubules allowing proper centrosome positioning in front of the nucleus. SIGNIFICANCE: We unravel here a new role for the cancer therapeutic target FAK in the regulation of cell morphogenesis.

A novel, generic and effective method for the rapid purification of G protein-coupled receptors.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) constitute the largest family of membrane receptors and are of major therapeutic importance. Structure determination of G protein-coupled receptors and other applications require milligram quantities of purified receptor proteins on a regular basis. Recombinant GPCRs fused to a heterologous biotinylation domain were produced in the yeast Pichia pastoris. We describe an efficient method for their rapid purification that relies on the capture of these receptors with streptavidin immobilized on agarose beads, and their subsequent release by enzymatic digestion with TEV protease. This method has been applied to several GPCRs belonging to the class A rhodopsin subfamily, leading to high yields of purified proteins; it represents a method of choice for biochemical and biophysical studies when large quantities of purified GPCRs are needed.

Enhancing functional production of G protein-coupled receptors in Pichia pastoris to levels required for structural studies via a single expression screen.

We have optimized the expression level of 20 mammalian G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris. We found that altering expression parameters, including growth temperature, and supplementation of the culture medium with specific GPCR ligands, histidine, and DMSO increased the amount of functional receptor, as assessed by ligand binding, by more than eightfold over standard expression conditions. Unexpectedly, we found that the overall amount of GPCR proteins expressed, in most cases, varied only marginally between standard and optimized expression conditions. Accordingly, the optimized expression conditions resulted in a marked fractional increase in the ratio of ligand binding-competent receptor to total expressed receptor. The results of this study suggest a general approach for increasing yields of functional mammalian GPCRs severalfold over standard expression conditions by using a set of optimized expression condition parameters that we have characterized for the Pichia expression system. Overall, we have more than doubled the number of GPCR targets that can be produced in our laboratories in sufficient amounts for structural studies.