Dopamine D4/D2 receptor selectivity is determined by a divergent aromatic microdomain contained within the second, third, and seventh membrane-spanning segments

Conserved features of the sequences of dopamine receptors and of homologous G-protein-coupled receptors point to regions, and amino acid residues within these regions, that contribute to their ligand binding sites. Differences in binding specificities among the catecholamine receptors, however, must stem from their nonconserved residues. Using the substituted-cysteine accessibility method, we have identified the residues that form the surface of the water-accessible binding-site crevice in the dopamine D2 receptor. Of approximately 80 membrane-spanning residues that differ between the D2 and D4 receptors, only 20 were found to be accessible, and 6 of these 20 are conservative aliphatic substitutions. In a D2 receptor background, we mutated the 14 accessible, nonconserved residues, individually or in combinations, to the aligned residues in the D4 receptor. We also made the reciprocal mutations in a D4 receptor background. The combined substitution of four to six of these residues was sufficient to switch the affinity of the receptors for several chemically distinct D4-selective antagonists by three orders of magnitude in both directions (D2- to D4-like and D4- to D2-like). The mutated residues are in the second, third, and seventh membrane-spanning segments (M2, M3, M7) and form a cluster in the binding-site crevice. Mutation of a single residue in this cluster in M2 was sufficient to increase the affinity for clozapine to D4- like levels. We can rationalize the data in terms of a set of chemical moieties in the ligands interacting with a divergent aromatic microdomain in M2-M3-M7 of the D2 and D4 receptors.