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In addition to their pleiotropic functions under physiological conditions, transcription factors STAT3 and STAT5 also have oncogenic activities, but how activated STATs are transported to the nucleus has not been fully understood. Here we show that an MgcRacGAP mutant lacking its nuclear localizing signal (NLS) blocks nuclear translocation of p-STATs both in vitro and in vivo. Unlike wild-type MgcRacGAP, this mutant did not promote complex formation of phosphorylated STATs (p-STATs) with importin alpha in the presence of GTP-bound Rac1, suggesting that MgcRacGAP functions as an NLS-containing nuclear chaperone. We also demonstrate that mutants of STATs lacking the MgcRacGAP binding site (the strand betab) are hardly tyrosine phosphorylated after cytokine stimulation. Intriguingly, mutants harboring small deletions in the C'-adjacent region (betab-betac loop region) of the strand betab became constitutively active with the enhanced binding to MgcRacGAP. The molecular basis of this phenomenon will be discussed, based on the computer-assisted tertiary structure models of STAT3. Thus, MgcRacGAP functions as both a critical mediator of STAT's tyrosine phosphorylation and an NLS-containing nuclear chaperone of p-STATs.

STAT transcription factors are tyrosine phosphorylated upon cytokine stimulation and enter the nucleus to activate target genes. We show that Rac1 and a GTPase-activating protein, MgcRacGAP, bind directly to p-STAT5A and are required to promote its nuclear translocation. Using permeabilized cells, we find that nuclear translocation of purified p-STAT5A is dependent on the addition of GTP-bound Rac1, MgcRacGAP, importin alpha, and importin beta. p-STAT3 also enters the nucleus via this transport machinery, and mutant STATs lacking the MgcRacGAP binding site do not enter the nucleus even after phosphorylation. We conclude that GTP-bound Rac1 and MgcRacGAP function as a nuclear transport chaperone for activated STATs.

We previously identified a guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase)-activating protein (GAP) male germ cell Rac GAP (MgcRacGAP) that enhanced interleukin-6 (IL-6)-induced macrophage differentiation of murine M1 leukemia cells. Later, MgcRacGAP was found to play crucial roles in cell division. However, how MgcRacGAP enhanced IL-6-induced differentiation remained elusive. Here we show that MgcRacGAP enhances IL-6-induced differentiation through enhancement of signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3) activation. MgcRacGAP, Rac, and STAT3 formed a complex in IL-6-stimulated M1 cells, where MgcRacGAP interacted with Rac1 and STAT3 through its cysteine-rich domain and GAP domain. In reporter assays, the wild-type MgcRacGAP enhanced transcriptional activation of STAT3 while a GAP-domain deletion mutant (DeltaGAP) did not significantly enhance it, suggesting that the GAP domain was required for enhancement of STAT3-dependent transcription. Intriguingly, M1 cells expressing DeltaGAP had no effect on the differentiation signal of IL-6, while forced expression of MgcRacGAP rendered M1 cells hyperresponsive to the IL-6-induced differentiation. Moreover, knockdown of MgcRacGAP by RNA interference profoundly suppressed STAT3 activation, implicating MgcRacGAP in the STAT3-dependent transcription. All together, our data not only reveal an important role for MgcRacGAP in STAT3 activation, but also demonstrate that MgcRacGAP regulates IL-6-induced cellular differentiation in which STAT3 plays a pivotal role.

Cell division is finely controlled by various molecules including small G proteins and kinases/phosphatases. Among these, Aurora B, RhoA, and the GAP MgcRacGAP have been implicated in cytokinesis, but their underlying mechanisms of action have remained unclear. Here, we show that MgcRacGAP colocalizes with Aurora B and RhoA, but not Rac1/Cdc42, at the midbody. We also report that Aurora B phosphorylates MgcRacGAP on serine residues and that this modification induces latent GAP activity toward RhoA in vitro. Expression of a kinase-defective mutant of Aurora B disrupts cytokinesis and inhibits phosphorylation of MgcRacGAP at Ser387, but not its localization to the midbody. Overexpression of a phosphorylation-deficient MgcRacGAP-S387A mutant, but not phosphorylation-mimic MgcRacGAP-S387D mutant, arrests cytokinesis at a late stage and induces polyploidy. Together, these findings indicate that during cytokinesis, MgcRacGAP, previously known as a GAP for Rac/Cdc42, is functionally converted to a RhoGAP through phosphorylation by Aurora B.