Characterization of the hinges of the effector loop in the reaction pathway of the activation of ras ‐p21

This work experimentally confirms the pathway of activation of Ha‐ras‐p21, which was calculated by the method of Targeted Molecular Dynamics (TMD) (Díaz JF, Wroblowski B, Schlitter J, Engelborghs Y, 1997a, Proteins Struct Funct Genet 28:434–451). The process can be studied experimentally by analyzing the binding of BeF₃⁻ to the GDP complex of the active fluorescent mutant Y32W (Díaz JF, Sillen A, Engelborghs Y, 1997b, J Biol Chem 227:23138–23143). Two mutants, V29G and I36G, have been constructed at both sides of the effector loop of the active fluorescent mutant. This was done to check the proposed reaction pathway and to provide further insight into the mechanism of the activation of ras proteins. Both mutations accelerate the conformational isomerization with two orders of magnitude, demonstrating convincingly the role of these residues as hinges of the effector loop in one or more of the transitions of the conformational change. These results provide experimental support to the pathway calculated by TMD analysis.