Rosenthal Justin S, Yuan Quan
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
Front Cell Neurosci. 2021 Sep 28;15:720560. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2021.720560. eCollection 2021.
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAchRs) are widely distributed within the nervous system across most animal species. Besides their well-established roles in mammalian neuromuscular junctions, studies using invertebrate models have also proven fruitful in revealing the function of nAchRs in the central nervous system. During the earlier years, both and animal studies had helped clarify the basic molecular features of the members of the nAchR gene family and illustrated their utility as targets for insecticides. Later, increasingly sophisticated techniques have illuminated how nAchRs mediate excitatory neurotransmission in the brain and play an integral part in neural development and synaptic plasticity, as well as cognitive processes such as learning and memory. This review is intended to provide an updated survey of nAchR subunits, focusing on their molecular diversity and unique contributions to physiology and plasticity of the fly neural circuitry. We will also highlight promising new avenues for nAchR research that will likely contribute to better understanding of central cholinergic neurotransmission in both and other organisms.
烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体（nAchRs）广泛分布于大多数动物物种的神经系统中。除了在哺乳动物神经肌肉接头中已确立的作用外，使用无脊椎动物模型的研究在揭示nAchRs在中枢神经系统中的功能方面也取得了丰硕成果。在早期，细胞和动物研究都有助于阐明nAchR基因家族成员的基本分子特征，并说明了它们作为杀虫剂靶标的效用。后来，越来越复杂的技术阐明了nAchRs如何在大脑中介导兴奋性神经传递，并在神经发育、突触可塑性以及学习和记忆等认知过程中发挥不可或缺的作用。本综述旨在提供nAchR亚基的最新概况，重点关注它们的分子多样性以及对果蝇神经回路生理学和可塑性的独特贡献。我们还将强调nAchR研究中前景广阔的新途径，这些途径可能有助于更好地理解果蝇和其他生物体中的中枢胆碱能神经传递。
