G Protein Coupled Receptor 17 (GPR17)

Members of the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily contain 7 transmembrane domains and transduce extracellular signals through heterotrimeric G proteins. Independently, Blasius et al. (1998) used RT-PCR to identify novel P2 nucleotide (P2Y) GPCRs and isolated GPR17 cDNAs. They identified 2 GPR17 splice variants, designated HIP4 and FB1, which encode predicted proteins of 339 and 367 amino acids, respectively.

Northern blot analysis revealed that human GPR17 is expressed as 2.3- and 6.3-kb mRNAs exclusively in brain. The 2 transcripts appear to represent alternatively polyadenylated variants. Based on protein sequence homology and the conservation of certain key residues, GPR17 appears to be closely related to the P2Y family of GPCRs.