Equilibrium and kinetic measurements reveal rapidly reversible binding of Ras to Raf.

Raf is a serine/threonine kinase that binds through its amino-terminal regulatory domain to the GTP form of Ras and thereby activates the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. In this study, we have characterized the interaction of the Ras-binding domain of Raf with Ras using equilibrium binding methods (scintillation proximity assay and fluorescence anisotropy), rather than with more widely used nonequilibrium procedures (such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and affinity precipitation). Initial studies using glutathione S-transferase fusion proteins with either residues 1-257 or 1-190 of Raf showed that although it was possible to detect Ras binding using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or affinity precipitation, it was substoichiometric; under equilibrium conditions with only a small excess of Raf almost no binding was detected. This difference was probably due to the presence of a high percentage of inactive Raf protein. Further studies used protein containing residues 51-131 of Raf, which expressed in Escherichia coli as a stable glutathione S-transferase fusion. With this protein, binding with Ras could readily be measured under equilibrium conditions. The catalytic domain of neurofibromin inhibited binding of Ras to Raf, and Raf inhibited the binding of Ras to neurofibromin showing that Raf and neurofibromin cannot be bound simultaneously to Ras. The affinities of interaction of neurofibromin and Raf with Harvey-RasLeu-61 were similar. The rate constant for dissociation of Raf from Ras was estimated to be >1 min-1, suggesting that Ras, Raf, and neurofibromin may be in rapid equilibrium in the cell. In contrast to previous reports, under equilibrium conditions there was no evidence for a difference in affinity between the minimal Ras binding domain of Raf (residues 51-131) and a region containing an additional 16 carboxyl-terminal amino acids, suggesting that residues 132-147 do not form a critical binding determinant.