A cDNA clone for a new rat metabotropic glutamate receptor termed mGluR7 was isolated through polymerase chain reaction-mediated DNA amplification by using primer sequences conserved among the metabotropic receptor (mGluR) family and by the subsequent screening of a rat forebrain cDNA library. The cloned mGluR7 subtype consists of 915 amino acid residues and exhibits a structural architecture common to the mGluR family with a large extracellular domain preceding the seven putative membrane-spanning domains. mGluR7 shows the highest sequence similarity to mGluR4 and mGluR6 among the members of the mGluR family. Similar to mGluR4 and mGluR6, mGluR7 inhibits forskolin-stimulated cyclic AMP accumulation in response to agonist interaction and potently reacts with L-2-amino-4-phosphonobutyrate and L-serine-O-phosphate in Chinese hamster ovary cells transfected with the cloned cDNA. RNA blot and in situ hybridization analyses of mGluR7 mRNA indicated that it is widely expressed in many neuronal cells of the central nervous system and is thus different from the more limitedly expressed mGluR4 or mGluR6 mRNA. mGluR7 together with mGluR4 thus corresponds to the putative L-2-amino-4-phosphonobutyrate receptor which plays an important role in modulation of glutamate transmission in the central nervous system.