Farnesyltransferase inhibitors cause the growth arrest of ras-transformed cells, but not that of normal cells. To elucidate the mechanism of this differential effect, we examined the effect of accumulation of unfarnesylated Ras in the cytosol by using RasG12V,C186S and RasC186S, which mimic unfarnesylated form of the oncogenic and the normal Ras, respectively. We found that RasG12,C186S inhibited activation and membrane translocation of Raf by forming a stable complex with Raf in the cytosol. In contrast, RasC186S showed inhibitory effect on neither Raf activation nor Raf translocation. These results indicate that unfarnesylated oncogenic Ras interacts with Raf in the cytosol and inhibits its membrane translocation, a crucial step for the Raf activation, while unfarnesylated normal Ras does not.
