An intronless gene encoding a potential member of the family of receptors coupled to guanine nucleotide regulatory proteins

Abstract

Plasma membrane receptors for hormones, drugs, neurotransmitters and sensory stimuli are coupled to guanine nucleotide regulatory proteins. Recent cloning of the genes and/or cDNAs for several of these receptors including the visual pigment rhodopsin, the adenylate-cyclase stimulatory beta-adrenergic receptor and two subtypes of muscarinic cholinergic receptors has suggested that these are homologous proteins with several conserved structural and functional features. Whereas the rhodopsin gene consists of five exons interrupted by four introns, surprisingly the human and hamster beta-adrenergic receptor genes contain no introns in either their coding or untranslated sequences. We have cloned and sequenced a DNA fragment in the human genome which cross-hybridizes with a full-length beta 2-adrenergic receptor probe at reduced stringency. Like the beta 2-adrenergic receptor this gene appears to be intronless, containing an uninterrupted long open reading frame which encodes a putative protein with all the expected structural features of a G-protein-coupled receptor.