Noda M, Takahashi H, Tanabe T, Toyosato M, Kikyotani S, Hirose T, Asai M, Takashima H, Inayama S, Miyata T, Numa S
Nature. 1983 Jan 20;301(5897):251-5. doi: 10.1038/301251a0.
The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) from fish electric organ and mammalian skeletal muscle is the best characterized neurotransmitter receptor (reviewed in refs 1-3). The AChR from the electroplax of the ray Torpedo californica consists of five subunits present in a molar stoichiometry of alpha 2 beta gamma delta (refs 4-6); the apparent molecular weights of the alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta-subunits are 40,000 (40K), 50K, 60K and 65K, respectively. Knowledge of the primary structures of these constituent polypeptides would facilitate the understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the function of the neurotransmitter receptor. Recently, we have cloned cDNA for the alpha-subunit precursor of the T. californica AChR and have deduced the primary structure of this polypeptide from the nucleotide sequence of the cloned cDNA. Here we report the cloning and nucleotide analysis of cDNAs for the AChR beta- and delta-subunit precursors. The primary structures of the two polypeptides deduced from the cDNA sequences reveal conspicuous amino acid sequence homology among these and the alpha-subunits. The three subunits contain several highly conserved regions which may be essential for the receptor function or inter-subunit interaction.
鱼类电器官和哺乳动物骨骼肌中的烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体（AChR）是特征最为明确的神经递质受体（参考文献1 - 3中有综述）。电鳐加州电鳐（Torpedo californica）电板中的AChR由五个亚基组成，其摩尔化学计量比为α2βγδ（参考文献4 - 6）；α、β、γ和δ亚基的表观分子量分别为40,000（40K）、50K、60K和65K。了解这些组成多肽的一级结构将有助于理解神经递质受体功能背后的分子机制。最近，我们克隆了加州电鳐AChRα亚基前体的cDNA，并从克隆的cDNA核苷酸序列推导了该多肽的一级结构。在此，我们报告AChRβ和δ亚基前体cDNA的克隆及核苷酸分析。从cDNA序列推导的这两种多肽的一级结构显示，它们与α亚基之间存在明显的氨基酸序列同源性。这三个亚基包含几个高度保守的区域，这些区域可能对受体功能或亚基间相互作用至关重要。
