A C-terminal peptide of bovine rhodopsin binds to the transducin alpha-subunit and facilitates its activation.

In order to investigate the possible roles of the intracellular domains of rhodopsin in the functional coupling of the photoreceptor to transducin, different peptides that correspond to parts of the known sequence of rhodopsin were synthesized. Since we have found tht the binding of rhodopsin to the alpha subunit of transducin (alpha T) increases the susceptibility of alpha T to phosphorylation by protein kinase C-beta 1, we used this phosphorylation reaction as an initial screen for peptides that mimic the actions of rhodopsin. The results of this screen indicated that a peptide from the C-terminal tail of rhodopsin (amino acids 325-338; KNPLGDDEASTTVS-amide; designated as peptide 3) was capable of interacting with the alpha T subunit. Evidence that peptide 3 binds to alpha T at a site that overlaps the rhodopsin-binding domain was obtained from experiments showing that peptide 3 inhibited the rhodopsin-stimulated GTPase activity of alpha T and that this inhibition was overcome at high levels of rhodopsin. A potentially important outcome of the peptide 3/alpha T interaction is the facilitation of the activation of the alpha T subunit. This was first demonstrated in fluorescence experiments where the binding of peptide 3 was shown to strongly promote the enhancement of the tryptophane emission of alpha T that is elicited by the addition of NaF. Specifically, the EC50 for NaF was shifted from approximately 4 mM in the absence of peptide 3 to below 0.5 mM in the presence of peptide 3. Further verification that peptide 3 facilitated the ability of NaF to activate the alpha T subunit was obtained from experiments measuring the alpha T GDP/NaF-stimulated hydrolysis of cyclic GMP by the cyclic GMP phosphodiesterase.