Human dopamine D2long and D3 receptors were modified by N-terminal addition of SNAP or CLIP forms of O6-alkylguanine-DNA-alkyltransferase plus a peptide epitope tag. Cells able to express each of these four constructs only upon addition of an antibiotic were established and used to confirm regulated and inducible control of expression, the specificity of SNAP and CLIP tag covalent labeling reagents, and based on homogenous time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer, the presence of cell surface D2long and D3 receptor homomers. Following constitutive expression of reciprocal constructs, potentially capable of forming and reporting the presence of cell surface D2long-D3 heteromers, individual clones were assessed for levels of expression of the constitutively expressed protomer. This was unaffected by induction of the partner protomer and the level of expression of the partner required to generate detectable cell surface D2long–D3 heteromers was defined. Such homomers and heteromers were found to co-exist and using a reconstitution of function approach both homomers and heteromers of D2long and D3 receptors were shown to be functional, potentially via trans-activation of associated G protein. These studies demonstrate the ability of dopamine D2long and D3 receptors to form both homomers and heteromers, and show that in cells expressing each subtype a complex mixture of homomers and heteromers co-exists at steady state. These data are of potential importance both to disorders in which D2long and D3 receptors are implicated, like schizophrenia and Parkinson disease, and also to drugs exerting their actions via these sites.
