Proteolytic cleavage of the extracellular domain affects signaling of parathyroid hormone receptor 1

Parathyroid hormone 1 receptor (PTH1R) is a member of the class B family of G protein-coupled receptors, which are characterized by a large extracellular domain required for ligand binding. We have previously shown that the extracellular domain of PTH1R is subject to metalloproteinase cleavage in vivo that is regulated by ligand-induced receptor trafficking and leads to impaired stability of PTH1R. In this work, we localize the cleavage site in the first loop of the extracellular domain using amino-terminal protein sequencing of purified receptor and by mutagenesis studies. We further show, that a receptor mutant not susceptible to proteolytic cleavage exhibits reduced signaling to Gs and increased activation of Gq compared to wild-type PTH1R. These findings indicate that the extracellular domain modulates PTH1R signaling specificity, and that its cleavage affects receptor signaling.