Chemotactic signaling by the human neutrophil N-formyl peptide receptor requires its association with heterotrimeric G protein. Synthetic peptides and a fusion protein derived from the intracellular regions of the receptor were used to identify sites which interact with G protein. A peptide derived from the second intracellular loop (C12R), and peptides (F15R and S22L) and a fusion protein derived from the receptor's carboxyl terminus inhibited binding of anti-Gi alpha antibody (R16,17) to Gi alpha in a competitive enzyme-linked immunoassay, and antagonized pertussis-toxin catalyzed ADP-ribosylation of Gi alpha. C12R also inhibited G protein-dependent, high affinity ligand binding to the receptor and physical coupling of receptor to G protein. In contrast, a peptide consisting of the entire third loop of the N-formyl peptide receptor was totally inactive in these assays. Collectively, these data suggest that the second intracellular loop and the carboxyl-terminal tail are important for effective N-formyl peptide receptor/G protein coupling, but that the third intracellular loop is less important in coupling, unlike previous findings with other G protein-coupled receptor systems. The chemoattractant receptor family may rely on different structural determinants to interact with GTP-binding proteins.