β-Arrestin-2 BRET Biosensors Detect Different β-Arrestin-2 Conformations in Interaction with GPCRs

β-Arrestins are critical regulators of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that desensitize G protein signaling, promote receptor internalization, and initiate signaling on their own. Recent structural findings indicate that β-arrestins adopt different conformations upon interaction with agonist-activated GPCRs. Here, we established a β-arrestin-2 conformational bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) sensor composed of the bright Nanoluc BRET donor and the red-shifted CyOFP1 BRET acceptor. The sensor monitors early intramolecular conformational changes of β-arrestin-2 in complex with a wide panel of different class A and class B GPCRs upon agonist activation and with orphan GPCRs known to spontaneously recruit β-arrestin-2. The introduction of the R170E mutant in the β-arrestin-2 sensor allowed the detection of a partially active β-arrestin-2 conformation, which is not dependent on receptor phosphorylation, while the deletion of the β-arrestin-2 finger-loop region detected the "tail-conformation" corresponding to the interaction of β-arrestin with the carboxyl-terminal domain of GPCRs. The new sensors combine the advantages of the BRET technique in terms of sensitivity, robustness, and suitability for real-time measurements with a high responsiveness toward early conformational changes to help to elucidate the different conformational states of β-arrestins associated with GPCR activation in living cells.