[Islam-Online- Science, Ideas & Technology]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - U.S. researchers have mapped the first crystal structure of a family of proteins that is crucial to the development and healthy functioning of humans, according to a study in Science magazine.

Researchers at the University of Washington have identified the structure of rhodopsin, a protein involved in the retina's reception of light in the eye. Rhodopsin is just one protein in the GPCR (G protein-coupled receptor) family - one of the largest families of proteins encoded in the human genome, representing approximately three percent of the genome.

GPCRs are active in almost all the body's physiological processes. They allow the tongue to have a sense of taste and the nose to smell scents as well as help regulate the beating of the heart.

The latest research "should have far-reaching implications," wrote Henry Bourne and Elaine Meng, of the University of California, San Francisco, in a commentary accompanying the article in Science.

The findings will help biologists understand how GPCRs translate signals sent by the brain into biological events to control, for example, the development of the embryo or the beating of the heart.

"Because the underlying structure is similar, understanding one of these G protein-coupled receptors is important to understanding all of them," wrote the lead author of the research paper, Krzystof Palczewski, professor of ophthalmology in the University of Washington School of Medicine. "This first structure provides computational models that will guide us in future experiments to decipher how those other receptors work," he added.

This GPCR group of proteins is the target of a number of new drug treatments for health problems ranging from difficulties with the vision to drug addiction and depression, and the new knowledge about their structure may lead to significant advances in drug design, Palczewski said