Cazzanelli Giulia, Pereira Flávia, Alves Sara, Francisco Rita, Azevedo Luísa, Dias Carvalho Patrícia, Almeida Ana, Côrte-Real Manuela, Oliveira Maria José, Lucas Cândida, Sousa Maria João, Preto Ana
CBMA-Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology, Department of Biology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.
Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen 208, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal.
Cells. 2018 Feb 19;7(2):14. doi: 10.3390/cells7020014.
The exploitation of the yeast as a biological model for the investigation of complex molecular processes conserved in multicellular organisms, such as humans, has allowed fundamental biological discoveries. When comparing yeast and human proteins, it is clear that both amino acid sequences and protein functions are often very well conserved. One example of the high degree of conservation between human and yeast proteins is highlighted by the members of the RAS family. Indeed, the study of the signaling pathways regulated by RAS in yeast cells led to the discovery of properties that were often found interchangeable with RAS proto-oncogenes in human pathways, and vice versa. In this work, we performed an updated critical literature review on human and yeast RAS pathways, specifically highlighting the similarities and differences between them. Moreover, we emphasized the contribution of studying yeast RAS pathways for the understanding of human RAS and how this model organism can contribute to unveil the roles of RAS oncoproteins in the regulation of mechanisms important in the tumorigenic process, like autophagy.
将酵母作为一种生物模型用于研究多细胞生物（如人类）中保守的复杂分子过程，这一做法带来了重要的生物学发现。在比较酵母和人类蛋白质时，很明显氨基酸序列和蛋白质功能通常都高度保守。人类和酵母蛋白质之间高度保守的一个例子体现在RAS家族成员上。的确，对酵母细胞中由RAS调控的信号通路的研究，促成了一些特性的发现，这些特性在人类通路中常与RAS原癌基因互换，反之亦然。在这项工作中，我们对人类和酵母的RAS通路进行了更新的批判性文献综述，特别强调了它们之间的异同。此外，我们强调了研究酵母RAS通路对理解人类RAS的贡献，以及这种模式生物如何有助于揭示RAS癌蛋白在肿瘤发生过程中重要机制（如自噬）调控中的作用。
