Together with the correlated motion analysis, these results are consistent with the idea that RON can homodimerize independent of ligand, as was proposed by others based on the crystal structure of the RON extracellular domain (Chao et al., 2012) and the evidence for ligand-independent activation with RON overexpression or mutations in cancer (Liu et al., 2011; Santoro et al., 1998; Wang et al., 2007). The gene discussed is MST1R; the disease is cancer.