Molecular cloning and characterization of a lobster Gα(s) protein expressed in neurons of olfactory organ and brain

Fuqiang Xu, Bettye Hollins, Anne M. Gress, Teresa M. Landers, Timothy S. McClintock

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

We have isolated from an American lobster (Homarus americanus) olfactory organ cDNA library a clone, lobGα(s), with >70% identity to mammalian and arthropod Gα(s) sequences. In genomic Southern blots, a fragment of lobGα(s) detected only one band, suggesting the lobsters have a single Gα(s) gene. In brain and olfactory organ, lobGα(s) mRNA was expressed predominantly in neurons, including many of the neuronal cell body clusters of the brain. Gα(s) protein was also expressed broadly, appearing on western blots as a band of 51.8 kDa in brain, eyestalk, pereiopod, dactyl, tail muscle, olfactory organ, and aesthetasc hairs. These results suggest that lobGα(s) plays a role in a wide variety of signal transduction events. Its presence in the olfactory aesthetasc hairs, which are almost pure preparations of the outer dendrites of the olfactory receptor neurons, and the expression of lobGα(s) mRNA in the olfactory receptor neurons of the olfactory organ indicate that lobGα(s) may mediate olfactory transduction. That virtually all ORNs express lobGα(s) mRNA equally predicts that hyperpolarizing odor responses mediated by cyclic AMP are a property of all lobster olfactory receptor neurons.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1793-1800
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Neurochemistry
Volume69
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1997

Keywords

  • Crustaceans
  • G protein
  • Lobster
  • Olfaction
  • Signal transduction

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

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