The cGMP sensitivity of cyclic nucleotide–gated (CNG) channels can be modulated by changes in phosphorylation catalyzed by protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) and protein tyrosine phosphatases. Previously, we used genistein, a PTK inhibitor, to probe the interaction between PTKs and homomeric channels comprised of α subunits (RETα) of rod photoreceptor CNG channels expressed in Xenopus oocytes. We showed that in addition to inhibiting phosphorylation, genistein triggers a noncatalytic interaction between PTKs and homomeric RETα channels that allosterically inhibits channel gating. Here, we show that native CNG channels from rods, cones, and olfactory receptor neurons also exhibit noncatalytic inhibition induced by genistein, suggesting that in each of these sensory cells, CNG channels are part of a regulatory complex that contains PTKs. Native CNG channels are heteromers, containing β as well as α subunits. To determine the contributions of α and β subunits to genistein inhibition, we compared the effect of genistein on native, homomeric (RETα and OLFα), and heteromeric (RETα+β, OLFα+β, and OLFα+RETβ) CNG channels. We found that genistein only inhibits channels that contain either the RETα or the OLFβ subunits. This finding, along with other observations about the maximal effect of genistein and the Hill coefficient of genistein inhibition, suggests that the RETα and OLFβ subunits contain binding sites for the PTK, whereas RETβ and OLFα subunits do not.

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