Encarnação et al. show that Rab3a, together with its newly identified effector NMHC IIA, mediates the positioning of peripheral lysosomes in nonsecretory cells, thereby promoting lysosome exocytosis and plasma membrane repair.

No abstract

During cell proliferation, growth must occur to maintain homeostatic cell size. Here we show that E2F1 is capable of inducing growth by regulating mTORC1 activity. The activation of cell growth and mTORC1 by E2F1 is dependent on both E2F1's ability to bind DNA and to regulate gene transcription, demonstrating that a gene induction expression program is required in this process. Unlike E2F1, E2F3 is unable to activate mTORC1, suggesting that growth activity could be restricted to individual E2F members. The effect of E2F1 on the activation of mTORC1 does not depend on Akt. Furthermore, over-expression of TSC2 does not interfere with the effect of E2F1, indicating that the E2F1-induced signal pathway can compensate for the inhibitory effect of TSC2 on Rheb. Immunolocalization studies demonstrate that E2F1 induces the translocation of mTORC1 to the late endosome vesicles, in a mechanism dependent of leucine. E2F1 and leucine, or insulin, together affect the activation of S6K stronger than alone suggesting that they are complementary in activating the signal pathway. From these studies, E2F1 emerges as a key protein that integrates cell division and growth, both of which are essential for cell proliferation.

No abstract

Both E2F1 and GSK3beta have been described as essential targets in neuronal apoptosis. Previous studies have demonstrated that GSK3beta binds to E2F1 in vivo. We wanted to investigate whether these proteins could share a common apoptotic signal pathway in neuronal cells. With this intention, we developed a PC12 ER-E2F1 stable cell line in which E2F1 activity was dependent on the presence of 4-hydroxitamoxifen. E2F1 activation produced apoptosis in naive and post-mitotic cells; serum and nerve growth factor respectively protected them from E2F1 apoptotic stimuli. The presence of specific GSK3beta inhibitors SB216763 and LiCl completely protected cells from apoptosis induced by E2F1 activation. In addition, knocked down GSK3beta experiments by small interference RNAs have demonstrated that a reduction of GSK3beta protein levels can lower the apoptotic effect of E2F1. Finally, we demonstrated that the apoptotic effect of E2F1 is not due to the regulation of GSK3beta activity, and that the inhibitory effect of GSK3beta inhibitor SB216763 on E2F1 induced apoptosis could be due to an alteration in the E2F1-regulated transcription gene pattern. In summary, we have demonstrated that the apoptotic action of E2F1 requires GSK3beta activity.