The pharmacology of (DL)-4-carboxy-3-hydroxyphenylglycine was examined in baby hamster kidney cells which stably express the type I metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR1alpha). DL-4-Carboxy-3-hydroxyphenylglycine dose-dependently inhibited glutamate-stimulated phosphoinositide hydrolysis in a competitive manner with a K(B) of 29 muM as estimated from Schild-plot analysis. The present report is the first demonstration of a potent and competitive antagonist of the mGluR1alpha subtype.