Two ras genes in Dictyostelium minutum show high sequence homology, but different developmental regulation from Dictyostelium discoideum rasD and rasG genes.

The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum expresses five ras genes at different stages of development. One of them, DdrasD is expressed during postaggregative development and transcription is induced by extracellular cAMP. A homologue of DdrasD, the DdrasG gene, is expressed exclusively during vegetative growth. We cloned two ras homologues Dmras1 and Dmras2 from the primitive species D. minutum, which show high homology to DdrasD and DdrasG and less homology to the other Ddras genes. In contrast to the DdrasD and DdrasG genes, both the Dmras1 and Dmras2 genes are expressed during the entire course of development. The expression levels are low during growth, increase at the onset of starvation and do not decrease until fruiting bodies have formed. Expression of neither Dmras1 or Dmras2 is regulated by cAMP. So even though the high degree of homology between the ras genes of different species suggests conservation of function, this function is apparently not associated with a specific developmental stage.