Delivery of cytoplasmic vesicles to discrete plasma-membrane domains is critical for establishing and maintaining cell polarity, neurite differentiation and regulated exocytosis. The exocyst is a multisubunit complex required for vectorial targeting of a subset of secretory vesicles. Mechanisms that regulate the activity of this complex in mammals are unknown. Here we show that Sec5, an integral component of the exocyst, is a direct target for activated Ral GTPases. Ral GTPases regulate targeting of basolateral proteins in epithelial cells, secretagogue-dependent exocytosis in neuroendocrine cells and assembly of exocyst complexes. These observations define Ral GTPases as critical regulators of vesicle trafficking.

Ral GTPases have been implicated in the regulation of a variety of dynamic cellular processes including proliferation, oncogenic transformation, actin-cytoskeletal dynamics, endocytosis, and exocytosis. Recently the Sec6/8 complex, or exocyst, a multisubunit complex facilitating post-Golgi targeting of distinct subclasses of secretory vesicles, has been identified as a bona fide Ral effector complex. Ral GTPases regulate exocyst-dependent vesicle trafficking and are required for exocyst complex assembly. Sec5, a membrane-associated exocyst subunit, has been identified as a direct target of activated Ral; however, the mechanism by which Ral can modulate exocyst assembly is unknown. Here we report that an additional component of the exocyst, Exo84, is a direct target of activated Ral. We provide evidence that mammalian exocyst components are present as distinct subcomplexes on vesicles and the plasma membrane and that Ral GTPases regulate the assembly interface of a full octameric exocyst complex through interaction with Sec5 and Exo84.

Ral GTPases have been implicated as mediators of Ras-induced signal transduction from observations that

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