G protein subtype specificity of rhodopsin intermediates metarhodopsin Ib and metarhodopsin II

Rhodopsin is one of the members of the G protein-coupled receptor family that can catalyze a GDP–GTP exchange reaction on the retinal G protein transducin (Gt) upon photon absorption. There are at least two intermediate states, meta-Ib and meta-II, which exhibit direct interaction with Gt. Meta-Ib binds to GDP-bound Gt, while meta-II forms a complex with Gt having no nucleotide, suggesting that meta-Ib is a state that initially interacts with Gt. Here we investigated whether or not meta-Ib exhibits specific interaction with G protein similar to meta-II, by examining the binding efficiencies of meta-Ib and meta-II to Giα and its mutants whose C-terminal 11 amino acids were replaced with those of Goα, Gqα and Gsα. The affinity of meta-Ib to the C-terminal 11 amino acids of Gtα was similar to those of Giα and its mutant with Goα's C-terminal 11 amino acids, whereas meta-II exhibited affinity to the C-terminal 11 amino acids of Giα mutant with Goα's C-terminal 11 amino acids about half of what was seen for Gtα and Giα. Both intermediates exhibited no affinity to the Giα mutants containing the C-terminal 11 amino acids of Gqα and Gsα. These results suggested that meta-Ib is the state that exhibits specific interaction with G protein as meta-II does, although meta-Ib exhibits a slightly lenient binding selectivity compared to that of meta-II.