Cloning, Sequencing and Expression of a Steroid Membrane Receptor

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Steroid hormones elicit responses in many target tissues by binding to specific receptors on the cell surface. However, lack of information on the structures of these steroid membrane receptors and their genes has prevented significant progress in our understanding of this mechanism of steroid hormone action. Recently a novel gene has been identified in spotted seatrout ovaries which appears to have the characteristics of an estrogen membrane receptor. The goal of this project is to complete the characterization of this putative estrogen membrane receptor, including its binding to steroids, localization in estrogen target tissues, activation of cellular responses, and regulation. This is a high risk project because it will not be known if the novel seatrout gene is a functional estrogen membrane receptor until all the research objectives have been completed. It is probable that a knowledge of the structure of the seatrout estrogen membrane receptor can be used to identify steroid membrane receptors in other species, including humans. Therefore the identification of the first steroid membrane receptor gene and knowledge of its structure is likely to have a major impact in many areas of biology and medicine including endocrinology, psychiatry, immunology, cancer, and reproductive disorders.