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Updated: Sep 20, 2025

An Introduction to Parasitic Wasps of Drosophila and the Antiparasite Immune Response
Published on: May 7, 2012
WASP family proteins: Molecular mechanisms and implications in human disease
Daniel A Kramer1, Hannah K Piper1, Baoyu Chen1
1Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology, Iowa State University, 2437 Pammel Drive, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
Abstract:
Proteins of the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) family play a central role in regulating actin cytoskeletal dynamics in a wide range of cellular processes. Genetic mutations or misregulation of these proteins are tightly associated with many diseases. The WASP-family proteins act by transmitting various upstream signals to their conserved WH2-Central-Acidic (WCA) peptide sequence at the C-terminus, which in turn binds to the Arp2/3 complex to stimulate the formation of branched actin networks at membranes. Despite this common feature, the regulatory mechanisms and cellular functions of distinct WASP-family proteins are very different. Here, we summarize and clarify our current understanding of WASP-family proteins and how disruption of their functions is related to human disease.
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