Oncogenic Ras suppresses Cdk1 in a complex manner during the incubation of activated Xenopus egg extracts

The activity of Cdk1 is the driving force for entry into M-phase during the cell cycle. Activation of Cdk1 requires synthesis and accumulation of cyclin B, binding of cyclin B to Cdk1, and removal of the inhibitory tyr-15-Cdk1 phosphorylation. It was previously shown that oncogenic Ras suppresses Cdk1 activation during the incubation of activated Xenopus egg extracts. However, how oncogenic Ras suppresses Cdk1 remained unclear. Using the histone H1 kinase assay to follow Cdk1 activity and Western blot analysis to assess levels of both cyclin B2 and phosphorylated-tyr-15-Cdk1, how oncogenic Ras suppresses Cdk1 is studied. The results indicate that oncogenic Ras suppresses Cdk1 via induction of persistent phosphorylation of tyr-15-Cdk1. Interestingly, the results reveal that, compared with cyclin B2 in control activated egg extracts, which increased, peaked and then declined during the incubation, oncogenic Ras induced continuous accumulation of cyclin B2. The results also indicate that oncogenic Ras induces continuous accumulation of cyclin B2 primarily through stabilization of cyclin B2, which is mediated by constitutive activation of the Raf-Mek-Erk-p90rsk pathway. Taken together, these results indicate that oncogenic Ras suppresses Cdk1 in a complex manner: It induces continuous accumulation of cyclin B2, but also causes persistent inhibitory phosphorylation of tyr-15-Cdk1.