| Title: | The repertoire of olfactory C family G protein-coupled receptors in zebrafish: candidate chemosensory receptors for amino acids |
| Address: | "Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Functional Genomics Laboratory, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. talioto@imim.es " |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1471-2164 (Electronic) 1471-2164 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "BACKGROUND: Vertebrate odorant receptors comprise at least three types of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs): the OR, V1R, and V2R/V2R-like receptors, the latter group belonging to the C family of GPCRs. These receptor families are thought to receive chemosensory information from a wide spectrum of odorant and pheromonal cues that influence critical animal behaviors such as feeding, reproduction and other social interactions. RESULTS: Using genome database mining and other informatics approaches, we identified and characterized the repertoire of 54 intact 'V2R-like' olfactory C family GPCRs in the zebrafish. Phylogenetic analysis - which also included a set of 34 C family GPCRs from fugu - places the fish olfactory receptors in three major groups, which are related to but clearly distinct from other C family GPCRs, including the calcium sensing receptor, metabotropic glutamate receptors, GABA-B receptor, T1R taste receptors, and the major group of V2R vomeronasal receptor families. Interestingly, an analysis of sequence conservation and selective pressure in the zebrafish receptors revealed the retention of a conserved sequence motif previously shown to be required for ligand binding in other amino acid receptors. CONCLUSION: Based on our findings, we propose that the repertoire of zebrafish olfactory C family GPCRs has evolved to allow the detection and discrimination of a spectrum of amino acid and/or amino acid-based compounds, which are potent olfactory cues in fish. Furthermore, as the major groups of fish receptors and mammalian V2R receptors appear to have diverged significantly from a common ancestral gene(s), these receptors likely mediate chemosensation of different classes of chemical structures by their respective organisms" |
| Keywords: | "Amino Acid Sequence Animals Chromosome Mapping Fishes/genetics Genomics/methods Mice Models, Molecular Molecular Sequence Data Olfactory Receptor Neurons/physiology Phylogeny Protein Structure, Tertiary Receptors, Amino Acid/chemistry/classification/*gene;Neuroscience;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineAlioto, Tyler S Ngai, John eng Comparative Study Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural England 2006/12/13 BMC Genomics. 2006 Dec 8; 7:309. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-7-309" |
