A moving story of receptors

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Abstract
Animals sense light and chemical signals through proteins called G-protein-coupled receptors. The crystal structure of one such receptor in complex with a G-protein fragment shows how these receptors are activated. Rhodopsin is a light-activated G-protein-coupled receptor. Recently, Oliver Ernst and his colleagues reported the structure of opsin, its ligand-free state, at 2.9 Å resolution. Here, they describe a similar resolution crystal structure of the same protein bound to a fragment of G-protein, the C-terminus of the Gα subunit. Within the active conformation of opsin, the G-protein interaction site is reorganized and there are long-range effects on the retinal-binding site. The work suggests a mechanism by which G-proteins might be activated by G-protein-coupled receptors.