Vav is a family of

proteins Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

involved in

cell signalling In biology, cell signaling (cell signalling in British English) or cell communication is the ability of a cell to receive, process, and transmit signals with its environment and with itself. Cell signaling is a fundamental property of all cellula ...

. They act as

guanine nucleotide exchange factors Guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) are proteins or protein domains that activate monomeric GTPases by stimulating the release of guanosine diphosphate (GDP) to allow binding of guanosine triphosphate (GTP). A variety of unrelated structu ...

(GEFs) for small

G protein G proteins, also known as guanine nucleotide-binding proteins, are a family of proteins that act as molecular switches inside cells, and are involved in transmitting signals from a variety of stimuli outside a cell to its interior. Their act ...

s of the

Rho family The Rho family of GTPases is a family of small (~21 kDa) signaling G proteins, and is a subfamily of the Ras superfamily. The members of the Rho GTPase family have been shown to regulate many aspects of intracellular actin dynamics, and are found ...

. GEF activity is mediated via module of tandem DH- PH domains. Vav proteins also appear to exhibit GEF-independent functions. Although it was originally thought that Vav proteins would only be present in multicellular organisms, Vav family proteins have been observed in

Choanoflagellates The choanoflagellates are a group of free-living unicellular and colonial flagellate eukaryotes considered to be the closest living relatives of the animals. Choanoflagellates are collared flagellates, having a funnel shaped collar of intercon ...

Function

Some functions of the Vav protein are important for the immune system. Specifically the ability of Vav to change the cytoskeletal structure of lymphocytes, which is particularly used to "aim" cytokines towards bound pathogens or cells. In humans there are three Vav proteins: *

Vav1 Proto-oncogene vav is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''VAV1'' gene. Function The protein encoded by this proto-oncogene is a member of the Dbl family of guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEF) for the Rho family of GTP binding pr ...

Vav2 Guanine nucleotide exchange factor VAV2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''VAV2'' gene. VAV2 is the second member of the VAV oncogene family. Unlike VAV1, which is expressed exclusively in hematopoietic cells, VAV2 transcripts were f ...

Vav3 Guanine nucleotide exchange factor VAV3 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''VAV3'' gene. This gene is a member of the VAV gene family. The Vav (protein), VAV proteins are guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) for Rho family GTPas ...

References

Protein families {{protein-stub