MOLECULAR-CLONING AND CHROMOSOMAL LOCALIZATION OF HUMAN GENES ENCODING 3 CLOSELY-RELATED G-PROTEIN-COUPLED RECEPTORS

Cosmids containing human genes for three orphan G protein-coupled rece ptors, GPR12, CPR6, and GPR3, were isolated using their rat homologs a s probes. Previous studies of the mouse and rat cDNAs have shown the r eceptors to be expressed primarily in brain but have failed to identif y their ligands. The three receptor proteins of 334, 363, and 330 amin o acids, respectively, are encoded by a single exon in each gene. Excl uding the divergent sequences preceding the first transmembrane domain , they have similar to 60% amino acid identity with each other. Fluore scence in situ hybridization of GPR12, GPR6, and GPR3 localized these three genes to human chromosomal regions 13q12, 6q21, and 1p34.3-p36.1 , respectively. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.