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Encyclopedia of Cancer pp 1–6Cite as

RAS Genes

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Definition

The word Ras comes from a contraction of Rat sarcoma, the tumor where the first gene of the family was identified, as part of the genome of a retrovirus isolated from a carcinogenesis protocol.

Characteristics

Structure

The Ras genes are prototypical members of the Ras superfamily of small GTPases that perform a host of important cellular functions including signal transduction (Ras, Ral, Rho), cytoskeletal regulation (Rho), vesicle transport (Rab), and nuclear-cytoplasmic transport (Ran). There are at least three Ras genes that are relevant for human cancer: H-, K-, and N-ras. H-Ras was initially isolated from the Harvey sarcoma virus, K-Ras from the Kirsten sarcoma virus, and N-Ras was isolated by DNA-mediated gene transfer from a human neuroblastoma cell line. In humans they are located in chromosome 11p15, H-Ras; 12p12, K-Ras; and 1p22, N-Ras. These three genes code for very similar proteins of 189 amino acids with four coding exons. Although the proteins are very...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Life Science, Biotechnology Research Institute, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Yung H. Wong

  2. Department of Pathology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Angel Pellicer

  3. Division of Life Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Wen Liu

Authors
  1. Yung H. Wong
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  2. Angel Pellicer
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  3. Wen Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yung H. Wong .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tumorgenetik, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Wong, Y.H., Pellicer, A., Liu, W. (2015). RAS Genes. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_4951-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_4951-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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