THE GUINEA-PIG HISTAMINE H-2-RECEPTOR - GENE CLONING, TISSUE EXPRESSION AND CHROMOSOMAL LOCALIZATION OF ITS HUMAN COUNTERPART

The guinea pig is the prototypic animal species for the histamine H-2 receptor. Using a strategy based upon nucleotide sequence homology and starting from the sequence of the rat histamine H-2 receptor (Ruat et al,, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 1991, 179: 1470-78), we have clon ed an intronless highly homologous DNA very likely encoding the guinea pig H-2 receptor. The encoded 359 amino acid protein displays 83 to 8 6% identity with the rat-, human- or dog-H-2 receptors. Northern blot analysis identified a single transcript of 4.6 kb in peripheral tissue s and brain areas in which the presence of the H-2 receptor had been r evealed previously by either photoaffinity labeling or binding studies . In brain, the distribution of transcripts, established by either Nor thern blots or ill situ hybridization studies, was consistent with the localization of the H-2-receptor. In addition, using Southern analysi s of a chromosome mapping panel constructed from human x hamster hybri domas, we assigned the H-2 receptor gene to human chromosome 5. (C) Ac ademic Press, Inc.