Several studies, including work from our laboratory, have demonstrated that the exocyst complex is involved in protein and membrane recycling in an evolutionally conserved pathway used by surface proteins that have been internalized into endosomes and are returned back to specialized domains of the plasma membrane (
Folsch et al., 2003;
Prigent et al., 2003;
Langevin et al., 2005). Various studies also identified endocytosis and recycling as a mechanism for controlling the activity of MT1-MMP during matrix degradation and invasion of tumor cells (
Jiang et al., 2001;
Uekita et al., 2001;
Zucker et al., 2002;
Remacle et al., 2003;
Wu et al., 2005;
Lafleur et al., 2006). Based on our findings that IQGAP1 and the exocyst complex, probably acting in a complex at invadopodia, are required for MT1-MMP accumulation at invadopodia, for invadopodial degradation of the matrix, and for invasion of breast carcinoma cells, we propose the model depicted in . In this scenario, the interaction of Sec3/Sec8 with IQGAP1 under the control of Cdc42/RhoA would provide a mechanism for targeting the exocyst complex to IQGAP1-enriched invadopodia of tumor cells. After targeting and/or assembly at invadopodia, the exocyst would facilitate tethering and polarized exocytosis of transport vesicles, resulting in delivery and accumulation of MT1-MMP at invadopodia. Noticeably, we observed a reduction of ventral puncta of F-actin and cortactin in cells depleted for Sec8 or IQGAP1 (unpublished data). However, whether this steady-state reduction reflects a general inhibition of invadopodia formation or the formation of more short-lived structures in the absence of IQGAP1 or the exocyst complex is unknown. In any case, our data support the view that the local activation of Cdc42 and RhoA at contact sites between tumor cells and the matrix would be required to interface proteins involved in cytoskeletal organization with proteins involved in exocytosis to assemble an active structure competent for matrix proteolysis and remodeling.
In addition, we found not only invadopodial proteolytic activity but also the mechanism of invadopodia formation to be critically dependent on expression of MT1-MMP ( and S5). These observations are in agreement with recent studies showing that knockdown or pharmacological inhibition of MT1-MMP inhibits matrix degradation and invadopodia formation in carcinoma cells, including MDA-MB-231 cells (
Artym et al., 2006;
Clark et al., 2007). All together, these findings support the idea that MT1-MMP is not only the main proteolytic activity of invadopodia, but it also represents one prominent component of the building foundation of this structure.
Our study attributes a novel function to IQGAP1 as a key component of invadopodia. IQGAP1 localizes at lamellipodia of migratory cells, where it links microtubule plus ends to the actin cytoskeleton and, thereby, appears as a key regulator of cell polarity during migration (
Noritake et al., 2005;
Brown and Sacks, 2006). In addition, recent studies showing that IQGAP1 is overexpressed at invasive fronts of metastatic human colorectal carcinomas and enhances tumorigenesis of human breast epithelial cells all support an essential role for IQGAP1 in invasion and metastasis (
Clark et al., 2000;
Nabeshima et al., 2002;
Mataraza et al., 2003;
Jadeski et al., 2008). Our finding that IQGAP1 is enriched at invadopodia and that loss of its expression leads to a reduction of invadopodia function in matrix degradation provides a mechanism for IQGAP1's role in the dissemination of invasive carcinoma cells. IQGAP1 is a scaffolding protein involved in multiple interactions with various cellular machineries. Besides its capacity to interact with the exocyst complex revealed by this study and, thus, the possibility to contribute to the delivery of invadopodial components, another function for IQGAP1 during invadopodia formation could be the stimulation of actin assembly by activation of a Neural Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein–Arp2/3 complex pathway known to control actin-driven invadopodial extension (
Yamaguchi et al., 2005a;
Le Clainche et al., 2007). Another aspect of IQGAP1 activity at invadopodia may reside in its ability to capture microtubule plus ends via the formation of tripartite complexes with activated Cdc42 and microtubule-associated proteins CLIP-170 and adenomatous polyposis coli (
Fukata et al., 2002;
Watanabe et al., 2004). Microtubules and microtubule motors are important for the formation and dynamics of invadopodia-like structures of monocyte-derived cells called podosomes (
Kopp et al., 2006). Whether invadopodia formation and/or activity similarly involves the microtubule network is presently unknown. Our observation that stimulation of invadopodial activity by constitutively active IQGAP1-T requires the CLIP170/adenomatous polyposis coli C-terminal binding domain of IQGAP1 suggests that this may indeed be the case and will require further investigation.
The interaction of IQGAP1 with Sec3/Sec8 that we document here, although it is promoted by GTP-Cdc42/RhoA, does not require direct binding of the GTPases to the GRD domain (Ras GTPase-activating protein–related domain) of IQGAP1. One possibility, which is supported by our coimmunoprecipitation data, is that activated Cdc42/RhoA binds to the Sec3/Sec8 subunits of the exocyst complex, leading to their interaction with IQGAP1. In
Saccharomyces cerevisiae, GTP-bound Cdc42p and Rho1p interact directly with the N-terminal domain of Sec3p (
Guo et al., 2001;
Zhang et al., 2001). However, mammalian Sec3 has only weak homologies with yeast Sec3p within the Rho-binding domain (
Matern et al., 2001). It should also be noticed that the counterpart of IQGAP1 in yeast, called Iqg1p (or Cyk1p), binds to and is required for the localization of Sec3p to the site of polarized growth (
Osman et al., 2002). So far, our attempts to pull down purified recombinant N-terminal fragments of Sec3 or Sec8 with immobilized GTP-Cdc42 failed (unpublished data). Whether the binding site of GTP-Cdc42/RhoA on the mammalian exocyst complex is provided by the Sec3 or Sec8 subunit solely or by the Sec3/Sec8 interface or even a more complex interface consisting of Sec3/Sec8 in association with other exocyst subunits will require further study.
Our data indicate that the activity of both Cdc42 and RhoA is required for promoting the association between IQGAP1 and the exocyst complex and that these two Rho GTPases are involved in separate nonredundant functions during the mechanism of invadopodial proteolysis of the matrix. Rho proteins, which are well-known modulators of cytoskeletal changes that occur during cell migration, contribute to various aspects of tumorigenesis, including invasion of highly motile carcinoma cells (
Sahai and Marshall, 2002). This role in invasion is correlated with the altered expression of Rho GTPases and some of their regulators and effectors in various human tumors, particularly the most aggressive and metastatic forms of cancers (
Fritz et al., 2002;
Sahai, 2005). Along this line, Cdc42 has been shown to control the formation of invadopodia in human melanoma and rat mammary adenocarcinoma tumor cell lines based on a Neural Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein–Arp2/3 complex signaling activation cascade (
Nakahara et al., 2003;
Yamaguchi et al., 2005a). A large body of work also implicates RhoA-related proteins (RhoA, RhoB, and RhoC) and downstream signaling pathways in the progression and invasion of tumors of various origins (
Fritz et al., 2002;
Sahai and Marshall, 2002;
Pille et al., 2005;
Wyckoff et al., 2006). Our study implicating RhoA in invadopodial matrix degradation extends previous studies showing that RhoA is required for the formation and activity of podosome/invadopodia-like invasive structures in v-Src–transformed fibroblasts (
Berdeaux et al., 2004; for reviews see
Linder and Aepfelbacher, 2003;
Jurdic et al., 2006). The picture that is thus emerging collectively from these previous studies and our work connecting Cdc42/RhoA with the vesicle-tethering machinery implies that the role of Cdc42/RhoA at invadopodia is not restricted to actin assembly but rather involves the coordination of cytoskeleton remodeling with vesicle docking/exocytosis for the generation of protrusions and for invasiveness.