Ras-interacting domain of Ral GDP dissociation stimulator like (RGL) reverses v-Ras-induced transformation and Raf-1 activation in NIH3T3 cells.

Ral GDP dissociation stimulator (RalGDS) and RalGDS like (RGL) are putative effector proteins of Ras and contain the Ras-interacting domain (RID) at their C-terminal regions. v-Ras is known to activate c-fos promoter/enhancer and Raf-1 and to transform NIH3T3 cells. It is also known that v-Raf activates c-fos promoter/enhancer and transforms NIH3T3 cells. In this study, we examined the effect of RID on the phenotype of the cells transformed by v-Ras and v-Raf. Overexpression of RID greatly reduced cell growth in low serum, colony-forming activity in soft agar, c-fos promoter/enhancer activity, and Raf-1 activity of v-Ras-transformed cells. However, overexpression of RID did not affect the phenotype of v-Raf-transformed cells. These results clearly indicate that RID of RGL specifically binds to Ras in mammalian cells, that it blocks the signal from Ras to Raf-1, and that it reverses v-Ras-induced malignant phenotype. It has been reported that Ras-binding domains of Raf-1 and neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) reverse v-Ras-induced malignant phenotype. Since there is no homology in primary structures of RGL, Raf-1, and NF1, there may be a similarity of secondary or tertiary structure among RID of RGL and Ras-binding domains of Raf-1 and NF1, and the structure might be useful for developing a potential medicine for human cancers caused by Ras.