Properties of the exchange rate of guanine nucleotides to the novel rap-2B protein

Rap-2B is a novel ras-related protein that is 89% identical to rap-2 at the amino acid level. Based on its amino acid sequence, it is anticipated that rap-2B binds guanine nucleotides. Here we show that purified, bacterially expressed rap-2B does bind both GTP and GDP in a Mg2(+)-dependent fashion. The relative affinity of rap-2B for GTP is higher than that for GDP, both at low and high concentrations of Mg2+. This contrasts with N-ras p21 and could be of functional significance. Moreover, a polyclonal antiserum was raised against the recombinant rap-2B protein purified from E. coli lysates. This antiserum recognized a major protein of Mr approximately 21000 on Western blots of platelet membrane proteins, and immunoprecipitates rap-2B complexed with GTP or GDP.