Structural insight to mutation effects uncover a common allosteric site in class C GPCRs

Motivation Class C G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) regulate important physiological functions and allosteric modulators binding to the transmembrane domain constitute an attractive and, due to a lack of structural insight, a virtually unexplored potential for therapeutics and the food industry. Combining pharmacological site-directed mutagenesis data with the recent class C GPCR experimental structures will provide a foundation for rational design of new therapeutics. Results We uncover one common site for both positive and negative modulators with different amino acid layouts that can be utilized to obtain selectivity. Additionally, we show a large potential for structure-based modulator design, especially for four orphan receptors with high similarity to the crystal structures. Availability and Implementation All collated mutagenesis data is available in the GPCRdb mutation browser at http://gpcrdb.org/mutations/ and can be analyzed online or downloaded in excel format. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.