Ionic control of small GTPase HRas using calmodulin.

Abstract

HRas is a small GTPase that plays physiologically important roles in various intracellular signal transduction processes, such as cell growth and proliferation. The structure and action mechanisms of HRas have been well characterized, leading to its widespread use as a molecular switch in bionanomachines. Calmodulin (CaM), a calcium ion-binding protein, acts as an ion-binding molecular switch and activates the target enzymes. We previously demonstrated that the fusion protein of HRas (M13-HRas) with the CaM target peptide M13 at the N-terminus of HRas exhibits reversible regulation of GTPase activity and the interaction between M13-HRas and the downstream signalling factor Raf by calcium ions with CaM. In this study, we prepared two new HRas fusion proteins with the M13 peptide at the C-terminus (HRas-M13) and both termini (M13-HRas-M13) of HRas and analysed the calcium-dependent regulation of HRas function. M13-HRas-M13 more efficiently controlled GTPase, interaction with Raf and the HRas regulator GEF by calcium ions with CaM.