Acetylcholine receptor/channel molecules of insects.

Acetylcholine-gated ion channels of the nicotinic type are abundant in the nervous system of insects. The channels are permeable to Na+, K+ and probably Ca(2+), and unlike most vertebrate neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors the receptor/channel molecule is blocked by alpha-bungarotoxin (alpha-Bgt). Such alpha-Bgt-sensitive receptors are present at synapses and on cell bodies of insect neurones. Single channel recordings have shown the existence of multiple conductances of nAChRs. Studies on several different insect preparations have provided evidence for more than one open state and several closed states of insect nAChRs. Functional insect nAChR channels have now been investigated in situ, following reconstitution of a purified protein in bilayers, and as a result of expressing in Xenopus oocytes messenger RNA encoding receptor subunits.