A new constitutively activating mutation of the Gs protein alpha subunit-gsp oncogene is found in human pituitary tumours.

A new 227 Gln----Lys oncogenic mutation of the Gs alpha subunit (the GTP-binding protein that stimulates adenylyl cyclase) has been found in three out of eight human growth hormone-secreting pituitary tumours of the group 2, characterized by high cAMP and constitutively activated adenylyl cyclase. The additional five group 2 tumours expressed another, previously described mutation, 201 Arg----Cys, while the tumours of group 1, characterized by normal cAMP and adenylyl cyclase activity, expressed neither these nor the two other mutations of the same sites previously described in group 2. The Gln 227 site of alpha s corresponds to the Gln 61 site in the low Mw G protein, p21 ras, where the Leu substitution had already been shown to be oncogenic. The oncogenic potential (gsp oncogene) of the mutations so far observed depends on the reduced GTPase activity intrinsic to alpha s, with constitutive activation of the protein and marked elevation of cAMP. The latter is the intracellular messenger that stimulates growth of pituitary growth hormone-secreting cells and other cell types.