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Molecular and pharmacological identity of the α2D-adrenergic receptor subtype in bovine retina and its photoreceptors

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Abstract

The rat cA2-47 gene encodes the pharmacologically defined α2D-adrenergic receptor (α2D-AR) subtype. Previously, the expression of its mRNA was shown in bovine retina by amplification through the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of a region corresponding to the rat α2D-AR, amino acid (aa) residues 382–439, indicating the presence of this subtype in this neural tissue. In the present study, the structure of this gene has been probed and the encoded receptor subtype has been characterized in bovine retina and its photoreceptor cells. The deduced as sequence of the two bovine gene fragments, aa residues 290–375 and as residues 392–434, demonstrates 77% overall identity with the rat α2D AR subtype and 80% overall identity with the mouse α2D-AR. The receptor encoded by the bovine gene was expressed in the retina and its photoreceptors with the typical pharmacological characteristics established for the rat (α2D-AR subtype: The receptor bound rauwolscine with a KD of 14 nM in the retina and with that of 19 nM in the photoreceptor cells; the binding association rate constant, k+1, for the ligand was 0.012 min−1, the dissociation rate constant, k−1, was 0.14 min−1 and the half-time for dissociation was 5 min. Oxymetazoline displaced the bound [3H]-rauwolscine with an EC50 value of 85 nM, while SK & F 104078, and prazosin displaced the bound [3H]-rauwolscine with the respective IC50 values of 900 nM and 3000 nM. The other α2-AR subtypes − α2B-AR, α2C-AR — were not detected in the retina and its photoreceptors. Thus, this study shows that the bovine α2D AR gene is a structural variant of the rat and mouse genes, that the bovine gene encodes the typical pharmacologically defined α2D-AR. subtype, that this subtype is present in its exclusive form in the bovine retina and its photoreceptors, where it may be presynaptic in nature.

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Author notes

  1. Karine Galoian

    Present address: Departmetn of Pharmacology, EPPI Medical Collge of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann university, 19129, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Unit of Regulatory and Molecular Biology, Department of Cell Biology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 08084, New Jersey, Stratford, USA

    Venkateswar Venkataraman, Teresa Duda, Karine Galoian & Rameshwar K. Sharma

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  1. Venkateswar Venkataraman
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  2. Teresa Duda
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  3. Karine Galoian
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Venkataraman, V., Duda, T., Galoian, K. et al. Molecular and pharmacological identity of the α2D-adrenergic receptor subtype in bovine retina and its photoreceptors. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry 159, 129–138 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00420915

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00420915

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