In addition to LRRK2, my lab has been working on some of the less well studied ROCO proteins for a number of years now (see our previous paper on DAPK1). In collaboration with Elisa Greggio and her lab over in Padova, Sybille Dihanich has been investigating MASL1, which is the smallest of the human ROCO proteins. What Sybille found is quite intriguing. MASL1 forms a series of complexes, and the nature of those complexes is dependent upon different Guanosine nucleotides binding to the active site of the protein. Although MASL1 has a very different sequence to LRRK2, we think that looking at the biology of this protein might help us gain a greater understanding of LRRK2 biology.
Read about Sybille’s research at FEBS Journal:
The Lewis Laboratory 