Methionine metabolism defect in cells transfected with an activated HRAS1 oncogene

Methionine dependence is a metabolic defect characterized by the inability of eukaryotic cells in culture to proliferate in a medium where methionine has been replaced by its immediate metabolic precursor, homocysteine. This defect has been reported to be a specific property of diverse tumour-derived and transformed cell lines; normal cell strains grow well under the above culture conditions. The basis of methionine requirement in such cells is not known. We asked whether this defect might be controlled by activated oncogenes and in particular by the mutated (activated) HRAS1 oncogene derived from the EJ/T24 human carcinoma line. We report that this oncogene induces methionine requirement after transfection in non-transformed immortalized rat cells.