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G Grishina

Publications and source records attributed to G Grishina.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

A surface-exposed region of G(salpha) in which substitutions decrease receptor-mediated activation and increase receptor affinity.

The mechanism by which receptors activate G proteins is unclear because a connection between the receptor and the nucleotide binding site has not been established. To investigate this mechanism, we evaluated the roles in receptor interaction of three potential receptor contact sites in alpha(s): the alpha2/beta4, alpha3/beta5, and alpha4/beta6 loops. Substitutions of alpha(i2) homologs for alpha(s) residues in the alpha2/beta4 loop and alanine substitutions of residues in the alpha4/beta6 loop do not affect activation by the beta(2)-adrenergic receptor. However, replacement of five alpha(s) residues in the alpha3/beta5 loop region with the homologous alpha(i2) residues decreases receptor-mediated activation of alpha(s) and increases the affinity of G(s) for this receptor. The substitutions do not alter guanine nucleotide binding or hydrolysis, or activation by aluminum fluoride, indicating that the effects on receptor interaction are not due to a destabilization of the guanine-nucleotide bound state. In a model of the receptor-G protein complex, the alpha3/beta5 loop maps near the second and third intracellular loops of the receptor. The effects of the alpha3/beta5 substitutions suggest that the wild-type residues may be receptor contact sites that are optimized to ensure the reversibility of receptor-G protein interactions. Furthermore, the alpha3/beta5 region corresponds to an exchange factor contact site in both EF-Tu and Ras, suggesting that the mechanisms by which seven-transmembrane receptors and exchange factors catalyze nucleotide exchange may share common elements.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗

Mutations at the domain interface of GSalpha impair receptor-mediated activation by altering receptor and guanine nucleotide binding.

G protein alpha subunits consist of two domains, a GTPase domain and a helical domain. Receptors activate G proteins by catalyzing replacement of GDP, which is buried between these two domains, with GTP. Substitution of the homologous alphai2 residues for four alphas residues in switch III, a region that changes conformation upon GTP binding, or of one nearby helical domain residue decreases the ability of alphas to be activated by the beta-adrenergic receptor and by aluminum fluoride. Both sets of mutations increase the affinity of alphas for the beta-adrenergic receptor, based on an increased amount of high affinity binding of the beta-adrenergic agonist, isoproterenol. The mutations also decrease the rate of receptor-mediated activation and disrupt the ability of the beta-adrenergic receptor to increase the apparent affinity of alphas for the GTP analog, guanosine 5'-O-(3-thiotriphosphate). Simultaneous replacement of the helical domain residue and one of the four switch III residues with the homologous alphai2 residues restores normal receptor-mediated activation, suggesting that the defects caused by mutations at the domain interface are due to altered interdomain interactions. These results suggest that interactions between residues across the domain interface are involved in two key steps of receptor-mediated activation, promotion of GTP binding and subsequent receptor-G protein dissociation.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗

Receptor-mediated activation of Gsalpha: evidence for intramolecular signal transduction.

To investigate the mechanism by which cell surface receptors activate heterotrimeric G proteins, we applied a scanning mutagenesis approach to the carboxyl-terminal 40% of alphas (residues 236-394) to identify residues that play a role in receptor-mediated activation. We identified four regions of sequence in which mutations significantly impaired receptor-dependent stimulation of cAMP synthesis in transiently transfected cyc- S49 lymphoma cells, which lack endogenous alphas. Residues at the carboxyl terminus are likely to be receptor contact sites. Buried residues near the bound GDP are connected to the carboxyl terminus by an alpha helix and may regulate GDP affinity. Residues in two adjacent loops of the GTPase domain at the interface with the helical domain, one of which includes a region, switch III, that changes conformation on GTP binding, are positioned to relay the receptor-initiated signal across the domain interface to facilitate GDP release. Consistent with this hypothesis, replacing the helical domain of alphas with that of alphai2 in an alphas/alphai2/alphas chimera corrects the defect in receptor-mediated activation caused by alphai2 substitutions on the GTPase side of the interface. Thus, complementary interactions between residues across the domain interface seem to play a role in receptor-catalyzed activation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Identification of common and distinct residues involved in the interaction of alphai2 and alphas with adenylyl cyclase.

The G protein alpha subunits, alphas and alphai2, have stimulatory and inhibitory effects, respectively, on a common effector protein, adenylyl cyclase. These effects require a GTP-dependent conformational change that involves three alpha subunit regions (Switches I-III). alphas residues in three adjacent loops, including Switch II, specify activation of adenylyl cyclase. The adenylyl cyclase-specifying region of alphai2 is located within a 78-residue segment that includes two of these loops but none of the conformational switch regions. We have used an alanine-scanning mutagenesis approach within Switches I-III and the 78-residue segment of alphai2 to identify residues required for inhibition of adenylyl cyclase. We found a cluster of conserved residues in Switch II in which substitutions cause major losses in the abilities of both alphai2 and alphas to modulate adenylyl cyclase activity but do not affect alpha subunit expression or the GTP-induced conformational change. We also found two regions within the 78-residue segment of alphai2 in which substitutions reduce the ability of alphai2 to inhibit adenylyl cyclase, one of which corresponds to an effector-activating region of alphas. Thus, both alphai2 and alphas interact with adenylyl cyclase using: 1) conserved Switch II residues that communicate the conformational state of the alpha subunit and 2) divergent residues that specify particular effectors and the nature of their modulation.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗

Localization of the effector-specifying regions of Gi2alpha and Gqalpha.

Heterotrimeric G proteins transmit hormonal and sensory signals received by cell surface receptors to effector proteins that regulate cellular processes. Members of the highly conserved family of alpha subunits specifically modulate the activities of a diverse array of effector proteins. To investigate the determinants of alpha subunit-effector specificity, we localized the effector-specifying regions of alphai2, which inhibits adenylyl cyclase, and alphaq, which stimulates phosphoinositide phospholipase C using chimeric alpha subunits. The chimeras were generated using an in vivo recombination method in Escherichia coli. The effector-specifying regions of both alphai2 and alphaq were localized within the GTPase domain. An alphaq/alphai2/alphaq chimera containing only 78 alphai2 residues within the GTPase domain robustly inhibited adenylyl cyclase. This alphai2 segment includes regions corresponding to two of the three regions of alphas that activate adenylyl cyclase, but does not include any of the alpha subunit regions that switch conformation upon binding GTP. Replacement of the alphaq residues that comprise the helical domain with the homologous alphai2 residues resulted in a chimeric alpha subunit that activated phospholipase C. Combined with previous studies of the effector-specifying residues of alphas and alphat, our results suggest that the effector specificity of alpha subunits is generally determined by the GTPase and not the helical domain.

Adenylyl Cyclase Inhibitors↗