| Full text | |
| Author(s): |
Mercadante, A. F.
;
Malnic, B.
;
Von Dannecker, L. E. C.
[3]
Total Authors: 3
|
| Document type: | Journal article |
| Source: | JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE; v. 25, n. 15, p. 3793-3800, Apr. 2005. |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Biochemistry |
| Abstract | |
The olfactory system is able to detect a large number of chemical structures with a remarkable sensitivity and specificity. Odorants are first detected by odorant receptors present in the cilia of olfactory neurons. The activated receptors couple to an olfactory-specific G-protein (Golf), which activates adenylyl cyclase III to produce cAMP. Increased cAMP levels activate cyclic nucleotide-gated channels, causing cell membranedepolarization. Here we used yeast two-hybrid to search for potential regulators for Golf. We found that Ric-8B (for resistant to inhibitors of cholinesterase), a putative GTP exchange factor, is able to interact with Golf. Like Golf, Ric-8B is predominantly expressed inthe mature olfactory sensory neurons and also in a few regions in the brain. The highly restricted and colocalized expression patterns of Ric-8B and Golf strongly indicate that Ric-8B is a functional partner for Golf. Finally, we show that Ric-8B is able to potentiate Golf-dependent cAMP accumulation in human embryonic kidney 293 cells and therefore may be an important component for odorant signal transduction. (AU) | |