title: The Regulation of Cellular Responses to Mechanical Cues by Rho GTPases.
abstract: The Rho GTPases regulate many cellular signaling cascades that modulate cell motility, migration, morphology and cell division. A large body of work has now delineated the biochemical cues and pathways, which stimulate the GTPases and their downstream effectors. However, cells also respond exquisitely to biophysical and mechanical cues such as stiffness and topography of the extracellular matrix that profoundly influence cell migration, proliferation and differentiation. As these cellular responses are mediated by the actin cytoskeleton, an involvement of Rho GTPases in the transduction of such cues is not unexpected. In this review, we discuss an emerging role of Rho GTPase proteins in the regulation of the responses elicited by biophysical and mechanical stimuli.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637551, Singapore. Jlhoon@ntu.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Jing Ling
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Hoon
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637551, Singapore. Meihua@ntu.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Mei Hua
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637551, Singapore. CGKoh@ntu.edu.sg.|Mechanobiology Institute, Singapore 117411, Singapore. CGKoh@ntu.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Cheng-Gee
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Koh
keywords: Rho GTPases; actin cytoskeleton; biophysical cues; cell migration; matrix stiffness; mechanical cues; proliferation and differentiation; topography