Abstract
Ras proteins are small GTPases that play a key role in cell proliferation and differentiation. Ras is essential for controlled cell growth, however, overexpression of Ras can create uncontrolled cell growth and lead to cancer. There are three Ras genes Hras, Nras, and Kras. The different differences between Ras •genes can hold clues to the specific mechanisms of how cancer works and diners. On a genetic level, Kras and Hras are quite similar except for a couple of locations, the biggest difference between the two is located at the C-terminal the tail and is called the Hypervariable Region (HVR). Previous experiments have shown that in fact swapping the two tail sections did not alter the phenotype of the given Ras gene. Therefore, the difference must lie somewhere else on the gene. By locating the areas that differentiate the two Ras', a great deal of information about Ras and cancer could be answered. The different genes can help provide insight on what makes Hras so much more lethal than Kras and provide information regarding why differentiation is blocked in Hras induced AML but not blocked CMML.