Polarized secretion is a tightly regulated event generated by conserved, asymmetrically localized multiprotein complexes, and the mechanism(s) underlying its temporal and spatial regulation are only beginning to emerge. Although yeast Iqg1p has been identified as a positional marker linking polarity and exocytosis cues, studies on its mammalian counterpart, IQGAP1, have focused on its role in organizing cytoskeletal architecture, for which the underlying mechanism is unclear. Here, we report that IQGAP1 associates and co-localizes with the exocyst-septin complex, and influences the localization of the exocyst and the organization of septin. We further show that activation of CDC42 GTPase abolishes this association and inhibits secretion in pancreatic β-cells. Whereas the N-terminus of IQGAP1 binds the exocyst-septin complex, enhances secretion and abrogates the inhibition caused by CDC42 or the depletion of IQGAP1, the C-terminus, which binds CDC42, inhibits secretion. Pulse-chase experiments indicate that IQGAP1 influences protein-synthesis rates, thus regulating exocytosis. We propose and discuss a model in which IQGAP1 serves as a conformational switch to regulate exocytosis.
Living vertebrates vary drastically in body size, yet few taxa reach the extremely minute size of some frogs and teleost fish. Here we describe two new species of diminutive terrestrial frogs from the megadiverse hotspot island of New Guinea, one of which represents the smallest known vertebrate species, attaining an average body size of only 7.7 mm. Both new species are members of the recently described genus Paedophryne, the four species of which are all among the ten smallest known frog species, making Paedophryne the most diminutive genus of anurans. This discovery highlights intriguing ecological similarities among the numerous independent origins of diminutive anurans, suggesting that minute frogs are not mere oddities, but represent a previously unrecognized ecological guild.
Regions with complex geological histories often have diverse and highly endemic biotas, yet inferring the ecological and historical processes shaping this relationship remains challenging. Here, in the context of the taxon cycle model of insular community assembly, we investigate patterns of lineage diversity and habitat usage in a newly characterized vertebrate radiation centred upon the world's most geologically complex insular region: island arcs spanning from the Philippines to Fiji. On island arcs taxa are ecologically widespread, and provide evidence to support one key prediction of the taxon cycle, specifically that interior habitats (lowland rainforests, montane habitats) are home to a greater number of older or relictual lineages than are peripheral habitats (coastal and open forests). On continental fringes, however, the clade shows a disjunct distribution away from lowland rainforest, occurring in coastal, open or montane habitats. These results are consistent with a role for biotic interactions in shaping disjunct distributions (a central tenant of the taxon cycle), but we find this pattern most strongly on continental fringes not islands. Our results also suggest that peripheral habitats on islands, and especially island arcs, may be important for persistence and diversification, not just dispersal and colonization. Finally, new phylogenetic evidence for subaerial island archipelagos (with an associated biota) east of present-day Wallace's Line since the Oligocene has important implications for understanding long-term biotic interchange and assembly across Asia and Australia.
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