Figure 1.

Ras effector pathways. GTP binding to Ras induces changes in protein conformation that increases Ras affinity for downstream effectors, thus activating many different signal transduction pathways. Among them, Raf/MEK/ERK, PI3K/AKT, and Ral are the best understood. Further, Ras crosslinks with other signaling pathways such as proteins from the Rho family and YAP. Through the regulation of the different downstream pathways, Ras proteins play a key role in the control of proliferation, survival, metastasis, apoptosis, migration, angiogenesis, and endocytosis.