Molecular mechanism for Rabex-5 GEF activation by Rabaptin-5
Zhang, Z., Zhang, T., Wang, S., Gong, Z., Tang, C., Chen, J., Ding, J.(2014) Elife 3: e02687-e02687
- PubMed: 24957337 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02687
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
4N3X, 4N3Y, 4N3Z, 4Q9U - PubMed Abstract: 
Rabex-5 and Rabaptin-5 function together to activate Rab5 and further promote early endosomal fusion in endocytosis. The Rabex-5 GEF activity is autoinhibited by the Rabex-5 CC domain (Rabex-5CC) and activated by the Rabaptin-5 C2-1 domain (Rabaptin-5C21) with yet unknown mechanism. We report here the crystal structures of Rabex-5 in complex with the dimeric Rabaptin-5C21 (Rabaptin-5C212) and in complex with Rabaptin-5C212 and Rab5, along with biophysical and biochemical analyses. We show that Rabex-5CC assumes an amphipathic α-helix which binds weakly to the substrate-binding site of the GEF domain, leading to weak autoinhibition of the GEF activity. Binding of Rabaptin-5C21 to Rabex-5 displaces Rabex-5CC to yield a largely exposed substrate-binding site, leading to release of the GEF activity. In the ternary complex the substrate-binding site of Rabex-5 is completely exposed to bind and activate Rab5. Our results reveal the molecular mechanism for the regulation of the Rabex-5 GEF activity.
Organizational Affiliation: 
State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.