Abstract
Guanine nucleotides couple receptors to stimulate or inhibit adenylate cyclase as well as regulate binding of neurotransmitters. To explore the relationship between these different functions of guanosine 5'-triphosphate (GTP), rat brain membranes were preincubated in 50 mM sodium acetate, pH 4.5, which increased GTP regulation of 3H-opiate agonist binding. Assay of adenylate cyclase in the low pH-pretreated membranes revealed no loss of basal activity but a dramatic loss in fluoride- and guanylyl-5'-imidodiphosphate-stimulated activity, thus suggesting a loss in stimulatory guanine nucleotide coupling function. Manganese stimulation, which presumably occurs on the catalytic subunit of adenylate cyclase directly, was not affected by low pH treatment. In striatum, dopamine-stimulated adenylate cyclase was eliminated, but inhibition of adenylate cyclase by D-Ala2-Met5-enkephalinamide (D-Ala enk) was increased by low pH treatment. The effect of low pH on sodium fluoride-stimulated and D-Ala enk-inhibited adenylate cyclase could be reversed by addition of either cis-vaccenic acid or phosphatidylcholine to treated membranes, but the effect on GTP regulation of binding was not reversed by lipid incorporation. These results suggest that fundamental differences exist between membrane components which couple receptors to adenylate cyclase and those that regulate neurotransmitter binding.