A NOVEL PUTATIVE RECEPTOR PROTEIN TYROSINE KINASE OF THE MET FAMILY

By successive screenings of cDNA libraries prepared from human tumours and from human foreskin keratinocytes, we have isolated overlapping cDNAs coding for a novel protein which we call Ron, with sequence characteristics of a receptor protein tyrosine kinase. Ron is a 1400 amino acid protein structurally similar to the 1408 amino acid product of the C-MET proto-oncogene, the receptor for hepatocyte growth factor and scatter factor. The two proteins have 63% overall sequence identity in their intracellular regions. We have localised the RON gene to human chromosome region 3p21, a region frequently deleted in small cell carcinoma of the lung and in renal cell carcinoma, and which is believed to harbour unidentified tumour suppressor genes. Interestingly, normal lung tissue contains transcripts of the RON gene.