Differential internalisation of mGluR1 splice variants in response to agonist and phorbol esters in permanently transfected BHK cells

The internalisation of metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR1 alpha) and its splice variant (mGluR1 beta), in response to agonist and phorbol esters (PMA), has been studied, Both mGluR1 alpha and mGluR1 beta exhibit a similar rate of internalisation following PMA treatment, with a shift in their distribution from plasma membrane to endosome-enriched membrane fractions, Agonist challenge however caused a rapid loss, within 5-10 min, of mGluR1 beta but not mGluR1 alpha from the cell surface. These results show that the two forms of mGluR1 show different internalisation responses to agonist and suggest that the C-terminal region of the molecule plays an important role in this phenomenon. (C) 1997 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.