A recent study of chemotaxis revealed a new role for the proto-oncogene Ras in the social ameba Dictyostelium discoideum.Chemotaxis,the directional movement of cells toward chemokines and other chemoattractants,plays critical roles in diverse physiological processes,such as mobilization of immune cells to fight invading microorganisms,targeting of metastatic cancer cells to specific tissues,and guidance of sperm cells to ova during fertilization.This work,published in the July 26 issue of The Joal of Cell Biology,was conducted in Dr.Devreotes’ lab at John Hopkins University and Dr.Parent’s lab at National Cancer Institute.This research team demonstrated that RasC functions as an upstream regulator of TORC2 and thereby govs the effects of TORC2-PKB signaling on the cytoskeleton and cell migration.