New Insights into the Interaction of Ras with the Plasma Membrane

Abstract

Ten years ago a series of papers showed that a complex set of signals are required for localization of Ras proteins at the plasma membrane. In this issue of Cell, Philips and coworkers shed new light on this problem by demonstrating that intracellular membranes and vesicular transport are involved in the passage of Ras proteins to the inner surface of the plasma membrane (Choy et al. 1999). The signals required for Ras proteins to be localized to the plasma membrane consist of two components. The first component comprises farnesylation of the cysteine of the C-terminal CAAX motif.