Imagination and reality in the search for the P2Y receptors

A great body of evidence based on tissue and organ physiology and pharmacology led to the recognition, widespread by about 1990, that there must be cell membrane receptors for extracellular nucleotides to transduce their effects. This evidence was provided by the pioneering work of Geoffrey Burnstock and those who worked with him, or was developed by others starting from that information. This article will review how we could start from that foundation to clone the first known gene for such a receptor, P2Y₁. Some unusual properties of that receptor were revealed. I will consider further the P2Y receptors as a class — its definition, now that many such genes have become known. Imagination and reality have been intertwined in this saga.