The differential effects of the Gly-60 to Ala mutation on the interaction of H-Ras p21 with different downstream targets

We examined the effects of the Gly-60 to Ala mutation on the interaction of H-Ras with Pas GTPase activating protein (GAP), neurofibromin 1 (NF1), Raf-1, and ral guanine nucleotide dissociation stimulator (ralGDS), factors that interact with GTP-bound form of H-Ras. Previous study has shown that the G60A mutation perturbs GTP-induced conformational changes of H-Ras. We found that the G60A mutation decreases GTPase activity of H-Ras without significantly affecting GTP/GDP binding. The reduction in GTPase activity is most dramatic in the presence of GAP or NF1. Interestingly, the G60A mutation does not appear to alter the affinity of H-Ras for GAP or NF1. The G60A mutation moderately reduces the binding of H-Ras to Raf-1 Ras binding domain; however, the binding of H-Ras to ralGDS Ras binding domain was more significantly affected by the same mutation. These results indicate that although GAP, NF1, Raf-1, and ralGDS all interact with H-Ras in a GTP-dependent manner and they are able to compete against each other for binding to H-Ras, these factors share overlapping but not identical binding domains on H-Ras. The significance of our findings is discussed in the light of the GTP-induced conformational change model.