New Player in Endosomal Trafficking: Differential Roles of Smad Anchor for Receptor Activation (SARA) Protein

VICTORIA ROZÉS-SALVADOR; SIRI, SEBASTIÁN OMAR; MELINA M. MUSRI; CONDE, CECILIA

MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY

Lugar: Washington; Año: 2018

0270-7306

The development and maintenance of multicellular organisms requirespecialized coordination between external cellular signals and the proteins receivingstimuli and regulating responses. A critical role in the proper functioning of theseprocesses is played by endosomal trafficking, which enables the transport of pro-teins to targeted sites as well as their return to the plasma membrane through itsessential components, the endosomes. During this trafficking, signaling pathwayscontrolling functions related to the endosomal system are activated both directlyand indirectly. Although there are a considerable number of molecules participatingin these processes, some are more known than others for their specific functions.Toward the end of the 1990s, Smad anchor for receptor activation (SARA) proteinwas described to be controlling and to facilitate the localization of Smads to trans-forming growth factor ␤ (TGF-␤) receptors during TGF-␤ signaling activation, and,strikingly, SARA was also identified to be one of the proteins that bind to early en-dosomes (EEs) participating in membrane trafficking in several cell models. The pur-pose of this review is to analyze the state of the art of the contribution of SARA indifferent cell types and cellular contexts, focusing on the biological role of SARA intwo main processes, trafficking and cellular signaling, both of which are necessaryfor intercellular coordination, communication, and development.