Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a novel neuropeptide that produces its biological effects by interacting with G protein-coupled receptors. Molecular cloning of the PACAP receptor revealed the existence of five splice variant receptor forms differing in the third intracellular loop region, with four variants activating both adenylyl cyclase and phosphoinositide phospholipase C and one variant activating only adenylyl cyclase (Spengler, D., Waeber, C., Pantaloni, C., Holsboer, F., Bockaert, J., Seeburg, P. H., and Journot, L. (1993) Nature 365, 170-175). Here, we report cloning of a novel PACAP receptor variant, designated PACAPR TM4 (transmembrane domain IV), that differs from the previously cloned short form of the PACAP receptor (PACAPR) primarily by discrete sequences located in transmembrane domains II and IV. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and primer extension analyses demonstrated tissue-specific differential expression of mRNAs encoding PACAPR TM4 and splice variant forms of the PACAP receptor. PACAPR TM4 and PACAPR possess identical intracellular domains, implicated as primary determinants of G protein recognition by rhodopsin-like receptors. However, unlike the PACAPR, PACAPR TM4 does not activate either adenylyl cyclase or phosphoinositide phospholipase C in response to PACAP in either transient or stable expression systems. However, PACAP stimulates increases in [Ca2+]i in cells expressing PACAPR TM4 by activating L-type Ca2+ channels, a response not elicited by stimulation with vasoactive intestinal polypeptide. The signaling phenotype of PACAPR TM4 is characteristic of the PACAP receptor involved in regulation of insulin secretion from pancreatic beta islets, a tissue expressing transcripts for PACAPR TM4 but not for PACAPR or its longer splice variant forms. These findings are consistent with a role of PACAPR TM4 in the physiological control of insulin release by PACAP in beta-islet cells. The finding that PACAPR TM4 has a unique signaling phenotype, although it possesses intracellular domains identical to those of the PACAPR, suggests that receptor-G protein recognition by rhodopsin-like receptors can be determined by sequences other than those located in intracellular receptor domains.