Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1988 Jul;85(13):4643-7.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.13.4643.

Posttranslational modification of the Ha-ras oncogene protein: evidence for a third class of protein carboxyl methyltransferases

S Clarke  1 , J P Vogel, R J Deschenes, J Stock
Affiliations

Posttranslational modification of the Ha-ras oncogene protein: evidence for a third class of protein carboxyl methyltransferases

S Clarke et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Jul.

Erratum in

  • Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1988 Oct;85(20):7556

Abstract

The ras oncogene products require membrane localization for their function, and this is thought to be accomplished by the addition of a palmitoyl group to a cysteine residue near the carboxyl terminus of the nascent chain. A lipidated carboxyl-terminal cysteine residue is also found in sequence-related yeast sex factors, and in at least two cases, the alpha-carboxyl group is also methyl esterified. To determine if ras proteins are themselves modified by a similar type of methylation reaction, we incubated rat embryo fibroblasts transformed with p53 and activated Ha-ras oncogenes with L-[methyl-3H]methionine under conditions in which the isotope was converted to the methyl donor S-adenosyl-L-[methyl-3H]methionine. By using an assay that detects methyl ester linkages, we found that immunoprecipitated ras proteins are in fact esterified and that the stability of these esters is consistent with a carboxyl-terminal localization. This methylation reaction may be important in regulating the interaction of ras proteins with plasma membrane components. The presence of analogous carboxyl-terminal tetrapeptide sequences in other proteins may provide a general recognition sequence for lipidation and methylation modification reactions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. EMBO J. 1987 Nov;6(11):3353-7 - PubMed
    1. J Biol Chem. 1987 Jan 15;262(2):546-8 - PubMed
    1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Apr;79(8):2460-4 - PubMed
    1. J Biol Chem. 1981 Mar 25;256(6):3067-76 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 1970 Aug 15;227(5259):680-5 - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances