G protein-receptor kinases 5/6 are the key regulators of G protein-coupled receptor 35-arrestin interactions.

Human G protein-coupled receptor 35 is regulated by agonist-mediated phosphorylation of a set of five phospho-acceptor amino acids within its C-terminal tail. Alteration of both Ser and Ser to alanine in the GPR35a isoform greatly reduces the ability of receptor agonists to promote interactions with arrestin adapter proteins. Here, we have integrated the use of cell lines genome-edited to lack expression of combinations of G protein-receptor kinases (GRKs), selective small molecule inhibitors of subsets of these kinases, and antisera able to specifically identify either human GPR35a or mouse GPR35 only when Ser and Ser (or the equivalent residues in mouse GPR35) have become phosphorylated to demonstrate that GRK5 and GRK6 cause agonist-dependent phosphorylation of these residues. Extensions of these studies demonstrated the importance of the GRK5/6-mediated phosphorylation of these amino acids for agonist-induced internalization of the receptor. Homology and predictive modelling of the interaction of human GPR35 with GRKs showed that the N-terminus of GRK5 is likely to dock in the same methionine pocket on the intracellular face of GPR35 as the C-terminus of the α5 helix of Gα and, that whilst this is also the case for GRK6, GRK2 and GRK3 are unable to do so effectively. These studies provide unique and wide-ranging insights into modes of regulation of GPR35, a receptor that is currently attracting considerable interest as a novel therapeutic target in diseases including ulcerative colitis.