Rho Family of GTPases - History

History

Identification of the Rho family of GTPases began in the mid 1980s. The first identified Rho member was RhoA, isolated serendipitously in 1985 from a low stringency cDNA screening. Rac1 and Rac2 were next identified in 1989 followed by Cdc42 in 1990. Eight additional mammalian Rho members were identified from biological screenings until the late 1990s, a turning point in biology where availability of complete genome sequences allowed full identification of gene families. All eukaryote cells contain Rho GTPase (ranging from 6 in yeast to 20 in mammals). In mammals, the Rho family is thus made of 20 members distributed into eight subfamilies : Rho, Rnd, RhoD/F, RhoH, Rac, Cdc42, RhoU/V and RhoBTB.

As early as 1990, Paterson et al. began injecting active rho protein into Swiss 3T3 cells.

In the 2006 review article released by Bement et al., the spatial zones of rho activation were explained.

As early as the mid-1990s, these processes and the effects of the rho proteins were observed in fibroblasts. In his 1998 review article, a prominent rho-protein researcher, Dr. Alan Hall, compiled evidence showing that not only do fibroblasts form processes based on rho activation, but so do virtually all eukaryotic cells.