The recently discovered family of RGS (regulators of G protein signaling) proteins acts as GTPase activating proteins which bind to ␣ subunits of heterotrimeric G proteins. We previously showed that a brain-specific RGS, RGS8 speeds up the activation and deactivation kinetics of the G protein-coupled inward rectifier K ؉ channel (GIRK) upon receptor stimulation (Saitoh, O., Kubo, Y., Miyatani, Y., Asano, T., and Nakata, H. (1997) Nature 390, 525-529). Here we report the isolation of a full-length rat cDNA of another brain-specific RGS, RGS7. In situ hybridization study revealed that RGS7 mRNA is predominantly expressed in Golgi cells within granule cell layer of cerebellar cortex. We observed that RGS7 recombinant protein binds preferentially to G␣ o , G␣ i3 , and G␣ z . When co-expressed with GIRK1/2 in Xenopus oocytes, RGS7 and RGS8 differentially accelerate G protein-mediated modulation of GIRK. RGS7 clearly accelerated activation of GIRK current similarly with RGS8 but the acceleration effect of deactivation was significantly weaker than that of RGS8. These acceleration properties of RGS proteins may play important roles in the rapid regulation of neuronal excitability and the cellular responses to short-lived stimulations.Numerous extracellular signals such as hormones, neurotransmitters, and odors stimulate seven transmembrane-spanning receptors that activate heterotrimeric G proteins. These G proteins function as signal transducing molecules by regulating cellular effectors including enzymes and ion channels (1, 2). The regulatory mechanisms that control G protein signaling have not been fully studied. Recently, a new family of regulators of G protein signaling (RGS) 1 was identified in organisms ranging from yeast to mammals (3, 4). Genetic screenings for negative regulators for pheromone response pathway in yeast identified a protein, Sst2 (5). By genetic and biochemical analyses, Sst2 was revealed to interact directly with G protein ␣ subunit (6). In the last few years, full or partial sequences of 22 RGS proteins have been identified in mammals. All of them share a conserved RGS domain of ϳ120 amino acids (7-15). It has been shown that several RGS proteins (RGS1, RGS3, RGS4, GAIP) attenuate G protein signaling in cultures (9,16,17). Biochemical studies have demonstrated that some RGS members (RGS1, RGS4, RGS10, GAIP, RGSr/RGS16, RET-RGS1) function as GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) for the Gi family of ␣ subunit, including G␣ o , G␣ i , and transducin (10, 14, 18 -20). Hence, these characterized RGS proteins are proposed to down-regulate G protein signaling in vivo by enhancing the rate of G␣ GTP hydrolysis. However, whether other RGS proteins regulate G protein signalings in a similar manner remains to be established.Because there are many G protein signaling pathways which regulate important functions such as neural transmission in the brain, it is possible that certain RGS proteins might determine a mode of G protein signaling that control neural functions. We searched RGS proteins specifically ...

The regulators of G protein signaling (RGS) proteins modulate heterotrimeric G protein signaling. RGS8 is a brain-specific RGS protein of 180 aa. Here we identified a short isoform of RGS8, RGS8S, that arises by alternative splicing. RGS8S cDNA encodes a N terminus of 7 aa instead of amino acids 1-9 of RGS8 and 10 -180 of RGS8. The subcellular distribution of RGS8 and RGS8S did not differ significantly in transfected cells. RGS8S accelerated, not as efficiently as RGS8, the turning on and off of Gi͞o-mediated modulation of G protein-gated inwardly rectifying K ؉ channels in Xenopus oocytes. We next examined the effects of RGS8 and RGS8S on Gq-mediated signaling. RGS8 decreased the amplitude of the response upon activation of m1 muscarinic or substance P receptors, but did not remarkably inhibit signaling from m3 muscarinic receptors. In contrast, RGS8S showed much less inhibition of the response of either of these Gq-coupled receptors. By quantitative analysis of the inhibitory effect and the protein expression level, we confirmed that the difference of inhibitory effect is caused by both the qualitative difference between RGS8 and RGS8S and the quantitative difference of the protein expression level. We also confirmed that the receptor-type specificity of inhibition is not caused by the difference of the expression level of the receptors. In summary, we showed that 9 aa in the N terminus of RGS8 contribute to the function to inhibit Gq-coupled signaling in a receptor type-specific manner and that the regulatory function of RGS8S is especially diminished on Gq-coupled responses. R egulators of G protein signaling (RGS) proteins comprise a large family of more than 20 members, which modulate heterotrimeric G protein signaling. They share a homologous domain, the RGS domain, which is flanked by diverse N and C termini (1-3). The RGS domain alone is sufficient for activating the GTPase of G␣, whereas the flanking domains confer various regulatory properties (3). RGS8 was identified in rat brain and is a small RGS protein along with RGS4, RGS5, and RGS16 (4, 5). We recently showed that RGS8 protein was concentrated in nuclei of cells transfected with cDNA for RGS8 expression and that coexpression of a constitutively active G␣o resulted in the translocation of RGS8 protein to the plasma membrane. The deletion of the N-terminal region (35 aa) of RGS8 abolished its nuclear localization and active G␣o-induced redistribution. This truncated mutant of RGS8, however, is still functional in inhibiting pheromone signaling in yeast to some extent. When coexpressed with G protein-gated inwardly rectifying K ϩ (GIRK) channels, the truncated RGS8 accelerated both turning on and off similar to RGS8. Acute desensitization of GIRK current observed in the presence of RGS8, however, was not induced. Thus, we clarified that RGS8 requires its N terminus for subcellular localization and full regulatory function (6). On the other hand, Zeng et al. (7) reported that the N-terminal domain (1-33 aa) of RGS4 confers receptor-selective inhibi...

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