The regulatory components of adenylate cyclase and transducin. A family of structurally homologous guanine nucleotide-binding proteins.

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G/F and transducin are guanine nucleotide-binding regulatory proteins that mediate activation of adenylate cyclase and of a rod outer segment cyclic GMP-specific phosphodiesterase, respectively. The substrate for islet-activating protein is a third guanine nucleotide-binding protein that is postulated to mediate inhibition of adenylate cyclase. The extent of structural homology among subunits of all three proteins was examined by analyses of amino acid compositions and electrophoretic patterns of proteolytic peptides. The lower molecular weight subunits (beta subunits; Mr = 35,000) of these proteins have identical amino acid compositions and yield similar peptides upon proteolysis with Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease and elastase. The higher molecular weight subunits (alpha subunits; Mr = 39,000, 41,000, and 45,000) are also similar to each other in these respects. Similarity between the subunits of transducin and the islet-activating protein (IAP) substrate is especially evident. Substantial differences do, however, exist between the lower and higher molecular weight subunits within each protein. In addition, evidence was obtained that the 41,000-Da subunit of the IAP substrate is not derived from the 45,000-Da subunit of G/F. It is concluded that transducin, the IAP substrate, and G/F represent a family of structurally homologous guanine nucleotide-binding regulatory proteins.