Imagination and reality in the search for the P2Y receptors

A great body of evidence based on tissue and organ physiology and pharmacol ogy led to the recognition, widespread by about 1990, that there must be ce ll membrane receptors for extracellular nucleotides to transduce their effe cts. This evidence was provided by the pioneering work of Geoffrey Burnstoc k and those who worked with him, or was developed by others starting from t hat information. This article will review how we could start from that foun dation to clone the first known gene for such a receptor, P2Y(1). Some unus ual properties of that receptor were revealed. I will consider further the P2Y receptors as a class - its definition, now that many such genes have be come known. Imagination and reality have been intertwined in this saga. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.