Understanding the role of phosphorylation in GEF-H1 regulation

Undergraduate: Sidney Lisanza

Faculty Advisor: Klaus Hahn
Department: Chemistry

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Cell movement is ubiquitous in many biological processes, and is controlled by the Rho family of small GTPases. RhoA, a member of this family, is regulated with precise spatio-temporal dynamics by GEF-H1. There are more than ten known phosphorylation sites affecting the activation state of GEF-H1. Although phosphorylation_x000D_
is known to be important for GEF-H1 function, its regulatory details and overall biological effects are poorly understood. This project identified the role of experimentally validated and computationally predicted phosphorylation sites of GEF-H1 in vivo with a novel FRET based biosensor.