BioMol Concepts, Vol. 3 (2012), pp. 307–318 • Copyright © by Walter de Gruyter • Berlin • Boston. DOI 10.1515/bmc-2011-0068 Review Small GTPase Ran and Ran-binding proteins Masahiro Nagai 1 and Yoshihiro Yoneda 1 – 3, * highly abundant and strongly conserved GTPase encoding ∼ 1 Biomolecular Dynamics Laboratory , Department a 25 kDa protein primarily located in the nucleus (2) . On of Frontier Biosciences, Graduate School of Frontier the one hand, as revealed by a substantial body of work, Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-3 Yamada-oka, Suita, Ran has been found to have widespread functions since Osaka 565-0871 , Japan its initial discovery. Like other small GTPases, Ran func- 2 Department of Biochemistry , Graduate School of Medicine, tions as a molecular switch by binding to either GTP or Osaka University, 2-2 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 , GDP. However, Ran possesses only weak GTPase activ- Japan ity, and several well-known ‘ Ran-binding proteins ’ aid in 3 Japan Science and Technology Agency , Core Research for the regulation of the GTPase cycle. Among such partner Evolutional Science and Technology, Osaka University, 1-3 molecules, RCC1 was originally identifi ed as a regulator of Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 , Japan mitosis in tsBN2, a temperature-sensitive hamster cell line (3) ; RCC1 mediates the conversion of RanGDP to RanGTP * Corresponding author in the nucleus and is mainly associated with chromatin (4) e-mail:
[email protected] through its interactions with histones H2A and H2B (5) . On the other hand, the GTP hydrolysis of Ran is stimulated by the Ran GTPase-activating protein (RanGAP) (6) , in con- Abstract junction with Ran-binding protein 1 (RanBP1) and/or the large nucleoporin Ran-binding protein 2 (RanBP2, also Like many other small GTPases, Ran functions in eukaryotic known as Nup358).