G Protein Coupled Receptor 12 (GPR12)

Such G protein-coupled receptors are critical for the normal functions of many cell types: neurons, endocrine cells, cardiac and smooth muscle cells, and sensory cells for detection of light, taste, and smell. Both activating and loss-of-function mutations in G protein-coupled receptors have been found as the cause of human diseases. Studies of the mouse and rat cDNAs showed the receptors to be expressed primarily in brain, but failed to identify their ligands.

The authors found that the 3 receptor proteins of 334, 363, and 330 amino acids, respectively, are encoded by a single exon in each gene. Excluding the divergent sequences preceding the first transmembrane domain, they have approximately 60% amino acid identity with each other.