Stanley Poh, Evelyn Png and Louis Tong
Chemotaxis, the directed cell migration controlled by gradients of chemoattractants, plays an essential role in many physiological processes, such as the recruitment of neutrophils to sites of inflammation. Neutrophils recognize chemoattractants through G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Chemoattractant stimuli activate multiple signaling pathways to regulate directed neutrophil migration. Recently, we identified a novel GPCR-mediated PLCβγ/PKCβ/PKD1 signaling axis that regulates cofilin activity through cofilin phosphatase Slingshot 2 (SSH2) and remodels the actin cytoskeleton during neutrophil chemotaxis. In the future, it will be important to understand how multiple signaling pathways are spatially and temporally regulated to precisely control the rapid remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton at the front line of chemotactic neutrophils.