Pharmacological receptors: the need for a compendium of classification, nomenclature and structure.

In an attempt to contain the chaos of receptor nomenclature, the supplement distributed with this issue of TiPS catalogues cell surface receptors and their subtypes according to the most commonly used nomenclature and describes them in pharmacological, biochemical and molecular terms. This reporting of the status quo will be an invaluable aid to communication, but all scientists (not just pharmacologists) working on receptors would agree that a radical and rational classification of receptors also needs to be initiated. In this article, Jack Peter Green proposes a system of (and mechanism for) classification that should satisfy both the 'taxonomic realists' and the 'taxonomic skeptics'.