Dr. Julian G. Cambronero's Laboratory Makes Discovery

Dr. Julian G. Cambronero's laboratory has discovered that the enzyme phospholipase D2 (PLD2) binds directly to the small GTPase Rac2. This discovery, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences represents the first report of a phospholipase enzyme harboring guanine nucleotide exchange (GEF) activity. Given that several human tumors exhibit elevated PLD2 levels this work suggest that this elevation may impact Rac2 function. (Abstract)