Pharmacological modulation of dual melanocortin-4 receptor signaling by melanocortin receptor accessory proteins in the Xenopus laevis.

Lei Li, Ying Xu, Jihong Zheng, Zhe Kuang, Cong Zhang, Na Li, Gufa Lin, Chao Zhang

Journal of cellular physiology 2021 Aug

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Physiological modulation of melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) signaling by MRAP2 proteins plays an indispensable role in appetite control and energy homeostasis in the central nervous system. Great interspecies differences of the interaction and regulation of melanocortin receptors by MRAP protein family have been reported in several diploid vertebrates but never been investigated in the tetrapod amphibian Xenopus laevis. Here, we performed phylogenetic and synteny-based analyses to explore the evolutionary aspects of dual copies of X. laevis MC4R (xlMC4R) and MRAP2 (xlMRAP2) proteins. Our data showed that xlMRAPs directly interacted with xlMC4Rs on the cell surface as a functional antiparallel dimeric topology and pharmacological studies suggested a homology specific regulatory pattern of the melanocortin system in X. laevis. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Citation

Lei Li, Ying Xu, Jihong Zheng, Zhe Kuang, Cong Zhang, Na Li, Gufa Lin, Chao Zhang. Pharmacological modulation of dual melanocortin-4 receptor signaling by melanocortin receptor accessory proteins in the Xenopus laevis. Journal of cellular physiology. 2021 Aug;236(8):5980-5993