Mapping the nucleotide and isoform-dependent structural and dynamical features of Ras proteins.
Ras GTPases are conformational switches controlling cell proliferation, differentiation, and development. Despite their prominent role in many forms of cancer, the mechanism of conformational transition between inactive GDP-bound and active GTP-bound states remains unclear. Here we describe a detailed analysis of available experimental structures and molecular dynamics simulations to quantitatively assess the structural and dynamical features of active and inactive states and their interconversion. We demonstrate that GTP-bound and nucleotide-free G12V H-ras sample a wide region of conformational space, and show that the inactive-to-active transition is a multiphase process defined by the relative rearrangement of the two switches and the orientation of Tyr32. We also modeled and simulated N- and K-ras proteins and found that K-ras is more flexible than N- and H-ras. We identified a number of isoform-specific, long-range side chain interactions that define unique pathways of communication between the nucleotide binding site and the C terminus.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0365, USA. abebe@mccammon.ucsd.edu
Alemayehu A
AA
Gorfe
Barry J
BJ
Grant
J Andrew
JA
McCammon
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006153:Guanosine Diphosphate / Q000737:chemistry; D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate / Q000737:chemistry; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011487:Protein Conformation; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000737:chemistry; D018631:ras Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
D020033:Protein Isoforms; D006153:Guanosine Diphosphate; D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate; D018631:ras Proteins