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Updated: Apr 19, 2026

Spatio-Temporal Manipulation of Small GTPase Activity at Subcellular Level and on Timescale of Seconds in Living Cells
Published on: March 9, 2012
Rac1 functions as a reversible tension modulator to stabilize VE-cadherin trans-interaction
Nazila Daneshjou1, Nathan Sieracki1, Geerten P van Nieuw Amerongen2
1Department of Pharmacology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60612.
None:
The role of the RhoGTPase Rac1 in stabilizing mature endothelial adherens junctions (AJs) is not well understood. In this paper, using a photoactivatable probe to control Rac1 activity at AJs, we addressed the relationship between Rac1 and the dynamics of vascular endothelial cadherin (VE-cadherin). We demonstrated that Rac1 activation reduced the rate of VE-cadherin dissociation, leading to increased density of VE-cadherin at AJs. This response was coupled to a reduction in actomyosin-dependent tension across VE-cadherin adhesion sites. We observed that inhibiting myosin II directly or through photo-release of the caged Rho kinase inhibitor also reduced the rate of VE-cadherin dissociation. Thus, Rac1 functions by stabilizing VE-cadherin trans-dimers in mature AJs by counteracting the actomyosin tension. The results suggest a new model of VE-cadherin adhesive interaction mediated by Rac1-induced reduction of mechanical tension at AJs, resulting in the stabilization of VE-cadherin adhesions.
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