Ronsin et al. (1993) cloned a member of the MET receptor family, which they designated RON, from a human foreskin keratinocyte cDNA library. Comparison with MET, the hepatocyte growth factor receptor, suggested that the RON gene product is also a membrane-spanning disulfide-linked heterodimer with intracellular tyrosine kinase activity.

Gaudino et al. (1994) showed that the RON gene is expressed at the cell surface of several epithelial cell types in addition to granulocytes and monocytes. They found that The RON mRNA is translated into a glycosylated precursor that is cleaved into a 185-kD heterodimer of 35-kD (alpha) and 150-kD (beta) subunits joined by the predicted disulfide linkage.