Received for publication January 25, 2006.
Revised January 25, 2006.
Accepted for publication January 25, 2006.

Bring Your Own G-Protein (Relates to Article by Zhang, et al. FastForward 17 January 2006)

Abstract

G Protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-G fusion proteins were first characterized more than 10 years ago as a strategy for studying receptor-G protein signaling. A large number of studies have used this approach to characterize receptor coupling to members of the G_s, G_i and G_q families of G subunits, but this strategy has not been widely used to study G₁₂ and G₁₃. As described in the article by Zhang et al in this issue of Molecular Pharmacology( Mol Pharmacol ), characterization of the signaling properties of Thromboxane A2 receptor (TP) -G₁₂ and -G₁₃ fusion constructs demonstrates the applicability of this strategy to members of this unique family of G subunits, and how this strategy can be used to resolve otherwise difficult problems of receptor pharmacology associated with these proteins. The general strategy of making receptor-Ga fusion constructs has wide applicability to a number of research problems, but there are perhaps also "hidden messages" in how different receptor-Ga subunit fusion pairs differ from one another.

Key words: Prostanoid, G12,13;other G's, G protein regulation, Func. analysis receptor/ion channel mutants, Mutagenesis/Chimeric approaches