CONFERENCE ON THE FUNCTIONS OF SMALL GTPASES

RAS和RAS相关(RABS)蛋白已被证明发挥关键作用 在人类肿瘤发生中的作用，控制正常细胞的增殖， 诱导分化表型，调节细胞膜运输。 在过去的几年里，很明显，许多类型的 到达细胞表面的信号激活RAS，而激活的RAS 而RABS可以刺激多个下游靶点。的主要目标是 未来的研究将是了解RAS如何使用这些 信号级联在细胞中调节这种不同的效应。 Rho家族GTP酶也被证明可以激活多个下游 最终导致肌动蛋白细胞骨架改变的靶点 和基因转录。Rho家族成员的激活也是 最近发现是RAS介导的细胞的重要组成部分 转型。这一领域的未来目标包括阐明 Rho蛋白通过以下途径执行其功能的分子细节 多种效应蛋白，以及Rho家族蛋白是如何被激活的 通过上游信号。

Ras and Ras-related (Rabs) proteins have been shown to play critical roles in human oncogeneis, controlling normal cell proliferation, inducing differentiated phenotypes and regulating membrane traffic. Over the past few years it has become apparent that many types of signals arriving at the cell surface activate Ras, and that active Ras and Rabs can stimulate multiple downstream targets. The major goal of future research will be to understand how Ras uses these multiple signaling cascades to mediate such diverse effects in cells. Rho family GTPases have also been shown to activate multiple downstream targets that ultimately lead to alterations in the actin cytoskeleton and gene transcription. Activation of Rho family members has also been shown recently to be an important component of Ras mediated cell transformation. Future goals in this area include elucidating the molecular details of how Rho proteins carry out their functions through multiple effector proteins, and how Rho family proteins are activated by upstream signals.