Isolation and characterization of an activated C-H-ras-1 gene from a squamous-cell lung carcinoma cell line.

We determined a complete nucleotide sequence of an activated form of the c-H-ras-1 proto-oncogene cloned from the human cell line (QG56), using the DNA transfection technique and NIH3T3 cells as recipients. This cell line was established from a squamous-cell lung carcinoma of a Japanese patient, and the activated gene had 2 nucleotide substitutions. One substitution of a thymidine for an adenosine was found at position 1069 of the 2898 nucleotide sequence in a restriction endonuclease (SacI) fragment, which corresponds to the second base of the 61st codon of the gene encoding P21 protein. This nucleotide replacement was assumed to be responsible for the transforming activity. Another substitution of a guanosine for an adenosine which was detected at position 746 in the first intron was thought to be a genetic polymorphism unassociated with the transforming activity. Comparison of the various lengths of restricted fragments suggested that the activity was markedly influenced by certain sequences flanking the c-H-ras-1 gene.