CATALYTIC RECEPTORS

Overview: Catalytic receptors are cell-surface proteins, usually dimeric in nature, which encompass ligand binding and functional domains in one polypeptide chain. The ligand binding domain is placed on the extracellular surface of the plasma membrane and separated from the functional domain by a single transmembrane-spanning domain of 20-25 hydrophobic amino acids. The functional domain on the intracellular face of the plasma membrane has catalytic activity, or interacts with particular enzymes, giving the superfamily of receptors its name. Endogenous agonists of the catalytic receptor superfamily are peptides or proteins, the binding of which may induce dimerization of the receptor, which is the functional version of the receptor.