Discrimination of Amino Acids Mediating Ras Binding from Noninteracting Residues Affecting Raf Activation by Double Mutant Analysis*

The contribution of residues outside the Ras binding domain of Raf (RafRBD) to Ras-Raf interaction and Ras-dependent Raf activation has remained unresolved. Here, we utilize a double mutant approach to identify complementary interacting amino acids that are involved in Ras-Raf interaction and activation. Biochemical analysis demonstrates that Raf-Arg59 and Raf-Arg67 from RafRBD are interacting residues complementary to Ras-Glu37 located in the Ras effector region. Raf-Arg59 and Raf-Arg67 also mediate interaction with Ras-Glu37 in Ras-dependent Raf activation. The characteristics observed here can be used as criteria for a role of residues from other regions of Raf in Ras-Raf interaction and activation. We developed a quantitative two-hybrid system as a tool to investigate the effect of point mutations on protein-protein interactions that elude biochemical analysis of bacterially expressed proteins. This assay shows that Raf-Ser257 in the RafCR2 domain does not contribute to Ras-Raf interaction and that the Raf-S257L mutation does not restore Raf binding to Ras-E37G. Yet, Raf-S257L displays high constitutive kinase activity and further activation by Ras-G12V/E37G is still impaired as compared with activation by Ras-G12V. This strongly suggests that the RafCR2 domain is an independent domain involved in the control of Raf activity and a common mechanism for constitutively activating mutants may be the interference with the inactive ground state of the kinase.

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