ISOLATION OF PSD-ZIP45, A NOVEL HOMER VESL FAMILY PROTEIN CONTAINING LEUCINE-ZIPPER MOTIFS, FROM RAT-BRAIN/

Using monoclonal antibody against the 45 kDa postsynaptic density prot ein, we isolated a novel isoform of Homer/vesl, The NH2-terninal regio n containing a PDZ domain of this protein is identical to that of Home r/vesl, and the COOH-terminal region containing unique leucine zippers shows self-multimerization. We named this protein PSD-Zip45, In addit ion to specific binding of PSD-Zip45 mediated by a PDZ domain to the m etabotropic glutamate receptors 1 alpha or 5, the distribution of PSD- Zip45 transcripts is highly consistent with that of metabotropic gluta mate receptor transcripts. The PSD-Zip45 is, therefore, the first cand idate as receptor anchoring proteins containing leucine zipper motifs in the central nervous system. (C) 1998 Federation of European Biochem ical Societies.