Defining the LGR8 residues involved in binding insulin-like peptide 3

The peptide hormone insulin-like peptide 3 (INSL3) is essential for testicular descent and has been implicated in the control of adult fertility in both sexes. The human INSL3 receptor leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 8 (LGR8) binds INSL3 and relaxin with high affinity, whereas the relaxin receptor LGR7 only binds relaxin. LGR7 and LGR8 bind their ligands within the 10 leucine-rich repeats (LRRs) that comprise the majority of their ectodomains. To define the primary INSL3 binding site in LGR8, its LRRs were first modeled on the crystal structure of the Nogo receptor (NgR) and the most likely binding surface identified. Multiple sequence alignment of this surface revealed the presence of seven of the nine residues implicated in relaxin binding to LGR7. Replacement of these residues with alanine caused reduced [(125)I]INSL3 binding, and a specific peptide/receptor interaction point was revealed using competition binding assays with mutant INSL3 peptides. This point was used to crudely dock the solution structure of INSL3 onto the LRR model of LGR8, allowing the prediction of the INSL3 Trp-B27 binding site. This prediction was then validated using mutant INSL3 peptide competition binding assays on LGR8 mutants. Our results indicated that LGR8 Asp-227 was crucial for binding INSL3 Arg-B16, whereas LGR8 Phe-131 and Gln-133 were involved in INSL3 Trp-B27 binding. From these two defined interactions, we predicted the complete INSL3/LGR8 primary binding site, including interactions between INSL3 His-B12 and LGR8 Trp-177, INSL3 Val-B19 and LGR8 Ile-179, and INSL3 Arg-B20 with LGR8 Asp-181 and Glu-229.