Tsunaki Hongu: Department of Physiological Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan.
Yasunori Kanaho: Department of Physiological Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan. Electronic address: ykanaho@md.tsukuba.ac.jp.
The small GTPase ADP-ribosylation factor 6 (Arf6) plays pivotal roles in a wide variety of cellular events, including exocytosis, endocytosis, actin cytoskeleton reorganization and phosphoinositide metabolism, in various types of cells. To control such a wide variety of actions of Arf6, activation of Arf6 could be precisely controlled by its activators, guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs), in spatial and temporal manners. In this manuscript, we summarize and discuss the characteristics of previously identified GEFs specific to Arf6 and activation machineries of Arf6.
