Molecular forms and subunit structure of the acetylcholine receptor in the central nervous system of insects.

The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor as probed by alpha-bungarotoxin binding has been isolated from detergent-solubilized ganglionic membrane preparations from the insect, Locusta migratoria. The isolation and characterization of the receptor protein was achieved by preparation of membrane fragments, extraction by sodium deoxycholate, centrifugation on sucrose density gradient, affinity chromatography, gel electrophoresis, and immunoblotting. The purified receptor protein migrated as a single band on polyacrylamide when native (Mr = 250,000 to 300,000) but also under denaturing conditions (Mr = 65,000) and cross-reacted with some monoclonal antibodies against the Torpedo receptor. In immunohistochemical approaches using polyclonal antibodies the acetylcholine receptor antigenic sites could topochemically be identified at very distinct zones in the neuropil of locust ganglia. The results suggest that the acetylcholine receptor in the central nervous system of insects represents an oligomeric complex composed of four identical or very similar subunits and thus may represent a prototype of the recently proposed homo-oligomeric ancestral acetylcholine receptor.