The tryptic cleavage pattern of transducin (G t ) in solution was compared with that in the presence of phospholipid vesicles, rod outer segment (ROS) membranes kept in the dark, or ROS membranes containing lightactivated rhodopsin, metarhodopsin II (Rh*). When G t was in the high affinity complex with Rh*, the ␣ t subunit was almost completely protected from proteolysis. , only a few angstroms away from the carboxyl terminus of ␣ t , which is known to directly bind to Rh*, is likely to also be a part of the Rh* binding site. This is in agreement with other studies and has implications for the mechanism by which receptors catalyze GDP release from G proteins. The protection of Lys 18 in the presence of phospholipid vesicles suggests that the amino-terminal region is in contact with the membrane, consistent with the crystal structure of the heterotrimer (Lambright, D. G., Sondek, J., Bohm, A., Skiba, N. P., Hamm, H. E., and Sigler, P. B. (1996) Nature 379, 311-319).Certain extracellular signals, including hormones, neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, chemokines, odorants, and light, activate a class of receptors that initiate cellular effects via activation of heterotrimeric G proteins. Agonist binding to the G protein-coupled receptors leads to conformational changes that promote a tighter interaction with specific G proteins, catalysis of GDP release, and subsequent G protein activation. In the absence of guanine nucleotides, agonist binding to the receptor is stabilized by the bound G protein. The structural basis of the ternary complex among agonist, receptor, and heterotrimeric G protein is an active area of study. Extensive mutagenesis experiments, as well as peptide competition investigations for a variety of G protein-coupled receptors, have led to an understanding that the second and third cytoplasmic loops and, in some circumstances, the putative fourth loop, as well as portions of ␣ helices VI and VII, are important in recognition of cognate G proteins (1-3). It has been shown that the heterotrimeric G protein, rather than just the ␣ or ␥ subunits, is required for the interaction, but studies pointing out the importance of specific regions are thus far limited to the ␣ subunits (4 -7).The crystal structures of the active (GTP␥S 1 and GDP AlF 4 Ϫ -bound) (8 -10) and inactive (GDP-bound) (11, 12) forms of the ␣ subunits of transducin (G t ) and G i1 have been reported. Analysis of the two crystal forms has established the nature of the conformational change induced by the exchange of GTP for GDP and the switch mechanism by which the presence or absence of the ␥-phosphate defines the active or inactive state of the ␣ t subunit (9, 11). The high resolution crystal structures of the heterotrimeric G proteins, G t and G i1 , provide a fundamental context for understanding how a heterotrimer interacts with the membrane and with activated receptors (13,14). The molecular mechanisms involved in the conformational changes of the ␣ subunit and the nucleotide exchange induced by the heterotrimeric G protein inter...