MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION AND TISSUE-SPECIFIC EXPRESSION OF A MURINEPUTATIVE G-PROTEIN-COUPLED RECEPTOR

We isolated by 5'- and 3'-RACE (rapid amplification of cDNA ends) clon es from a murine brain cDNA library which encode a putative G-protein- coupled receptor. The composite nucleotide sequence revealed a coding region of 1197 nt; the deduced amino acid sequence of 399 amino acids showed 91.5% identity (95.7% similarity) when compared with the human homolog. An intron-like sequence, possibly involved in the regulation of expression, was found within the 5'-untranslated region. Northern b lot analysis showed that the major 1.7-kb transcript is widely express ed, notably in brain and testis. In situ hybridization studies of tiss ue sections revealed high expression in neurons of the brain, epitheli al cells of the lung, kidney and intestine, and in alveolar macrophage s. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.