title: Cloning, constitutive activity and expression profiling of two receptors related to relaxin receptors in Drosophila melanogaster.
abstract: Leucine-rich repeat containing G protein-coupled receptors (LGRs) comprise a cluster of transmembrane proteins, characterized by the presence of a large N-terminal extracellular domain. This receptor group can be classified into three subtypes. Belonging to the subtype C LGRs are the mammalian relaxin receptors LGR7 (RXFP1) and LGR8 (RXFP2), which mediate important reproductive and other processes. We identified two related receptors in the genome of the fruit fly and cloned their open reading frames into an expression vector. Interestingly, dLGR3 demonstrated constitutive activity at very low doses of transfected plasmid, whereas dLGR4 did not show any basal activity. Both receptors exhibited a similar expression pattern during development, with relatively high transcript levels during the first larval stage. In addition, both receptors displayed higher expression in male adult flies as compared to female flies. Analysis of the tissue distribution of both receptor transcripts revealed a high expression of dLGR3 in the female fat body, while the expression of dLGR4 peaked in the midgut of both the wandering and adult stage.
authors: Department of Animal Physiology and Neurobiology, Zoological Institute, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, P.O. Box 2465, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors: Matthias B
authors: MB
authors: Van Hiel
authors: Department of Animal Physiology and Neurobiology, Zoological Institute, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, P.O. Box 2465, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors: Hans Peter
authors: HP
authors: Vandersmissen
authors: Molecular Immunology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, KU Leuven, Minderbroedersstraat 10, P.O. Box 1030, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Proost
authors: Department of Animal Physiology and Neurobiology, Zoological Institute, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, P.O. Box 2465, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: jozef.vandenbroeck@bio.kuleuven.be.
authors: Jozef
authors: J
authors: Vanden Broeck
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005216:Fat Body / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C000605313:LGR4 protein, Drosophila; C000603337:Lgr3 protein, Drosophila; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled
keywords: Fruit fly; G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR); Hormone; Insulin; Leucine-rich repeat containing GPCR (LGR); Peptide Synthesis