NOMENCLATURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF TRANSMITTER RECEPTORS - AN INTEGRATED APPROACH

This short assay is an attempt to rationalize an integrated approach t o transmitter receptor nomenclature and classification based on three criteria: structural information (gene structure/amino acid sequence), operational(1) information (pharmacological/ligand-defined/recognitor y) and transductional information (receptor-effector coupling) are pro posed to be used when considering the naming of existing or newly disc overed receptors. It should be recognized that none of these criteria has primacy and that in an ideal situation, as much information as fea sible on these three aspects should be collected before the naming of a receptor can be agreed upon.