The M1-muscarinic cholinergic receptor (M1AChR) stimulates the release of inositol phosphates (IPs) but does not activate adenylyl cyclase. The beta-adrenergic receptor (beta-AR) stimulates adenylyl cyclase but has no effect on IP release. Amino acid sequences corresponding to the second (I2) and third (I3) intracellular loops of the turkey erythrocyte beta-AR and a 12-amino acid segment near the N-terminal end of the I3 region were substituted into the corresponding regions of the human M1AChR. Chimeric receptors that contained either the entire I3 loop or the N-terminal dodecapeptide of that loop both mediated the 2-4-fold stimulation of adenylyl cyclase activity in membrane fractions of COS, A293, or Sf9 cells in response to carbachol. These chimeric receptors also retained the ability to stimulate IP release to the same extent as did the M1AChR. In COS cells transfected with the I3 chimeric receptor, the EC50 for carbachol was approximately 7 microM for the stimulation of adenylyl cyclase and approximately 2 microM for the release of IP; M1AChR-mediated IP release displayed an EC50 of approximately 0.2 microM. Substitution of the I2 region of the beta-AR into the M1AChR did not by itself alter selectivity for signaling. However, the I2+I3 and I2+dodecapeptide combined replacements stimulated adenylyl cyclase fully and caused at most 25% of the maximal stimulation of IP release observed with the M1AChR. Thus, a small region in the third cytoplasmic loop can alter the G proteins to which a receptor is coupled, but interaction among loops is evidently involved in fully determining G protein selectivity.