Cloning, Sequencing and Expression of a Steroid Membrane Receptor

类固醇激素通过与细胞表面的特定受体结合，在许多靶组织中引起反应。然而，缺乏对这些类固醇激素受体及其基因结构的了解，阻碍了我们对类固醇激素作用机制的理解取得重大进展。最近，在斑点坐位卵巢中发现了一个新基因，它似乎具有雌激素膜受体的特征。这个项目的目标是完成这种假定的雌激素膜受体的特征，包括它与类固醇的结合，在雌激素靶组织中的定位，激活细胞反应，以及调节。这是一个高风险的项目，因为在所有研究目标完成之前，还不知道新的Seatrout基因是否是具有功能的雌激素膜受体。对Seatrout雌激素膜受体结构的了解很可能被用来鉴定其他物种的类固醇膜受体，包括人类。因此，对第一个类固醇膜受体基因的鉴定和对其结构的了解可能会对生物学和医学的许多领域产生重大影响，包括内分泌学、精神病学、免疫学、癌症和生殖障碍。

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.