Characterization of Ras Y4H mutants in Drosophila

MicroPubl Biol. 2024 Feb 29:2024:10.17912/micropub.biology.001068. doi: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001068. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Ras signaling plays a highly conserved role from flies to mammals in establishing proper development, and its dysregulation can lead to cancer. In Drosophila , we demonstrated that Ras Tyrosine 4 (Y4) was required for inhibitory ubiquitination by Rabex-5. In humans, rare histidine substitution mutations at Y4 are found in HRas in cerebellar glioblastomas (cGBMs). We report here that analogous Y4H mutations in Drosophila Ras make it less sensitive to Rabex-5-mediated ubiquitination in cells and show increased frequency of vein phenotypes per wing compared to wild-type Ras, which would be consistent with Ras gain-of-function and with their appearance in human cGBMs.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences R01GM135330 and R01GM122995 and the Tisch Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant (P30 CA196521).