The A- and B-type muscarinic acetylcholine receptors from Drosophila melanogaster couple to different second messenger pathways

Guilin Robin Ren, Jonas Folke, Frank Hauser, Shizhong Li, Cornelis Grimmelikhuijzen

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Abstract Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) are G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that are activated by the agonists acetylcholine and muscarine and blocked by several antagonists, among them atropine. In mammals five mAChRs (m1-m5) exist of which m1, m3, and m5 are coupled to members of the Gq/11 family and m2 and m4 to members of the Gi/0 family. We have recently shown that Drosophila melanogaster and other arthropods have two mAChRs, named A and B, where the A-type has the same pharmacology as the mammalian mAChRs, while the B-type has a very low affinity to muscarine and no affinity to classical antagonists such as atropine. Here, we find that the D. melanogaster A-type mAChR is coupled to Gq/11 and D. melanogaster B-type mAChR to Gi/0. Furthermore, by comparing the second and third intracellular loops of all animal mAChRs for which the G protein coupling has been established, we could identify several amino acid residues likely to be specific for either Gq/11 or Gi/0 coupling. Using these hallmarks for specific mAChR G protein interaction we found that all protostomes with a sequenced genome have one mAChR coupled to Gq/11 and one to four mAChRs coupled to Gi/0. Furthermore, in protostomes, probably all A-type mAChRs are coupled to Gq/11 and all B-type mAChRs to G0/i.

Original languageEnglish
JournalBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
Volume462
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)358-364
Number of pages7
ISSN0006-291X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Jun 2015

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