Figure 1.

Downstream effectors of Ras pathway including Ral pathway and their biological roles. A series of downstream effectors of Ras exert a myriad of biological effects which in case of overactivation can contribute to progression toward neoplasia. Ral pathway is activated by RalGDS a member of RalGEF family. Although RalGDS shares sequence homology with Ras‐GEFs, it does not show any affinity for Ras. Activation of PLD by Ral results in generation of a series of second messengers such as phosphatidic acid, lysophosphatidic acid, and diacylglycerol. Ral also activates Cdc42 in a cross‐talk with the PI3K pathway.