Molecular analysis of cDNA molecules encoding glutamate receptor subunits, fGluR1 alpha and fGluR1 beta, of Oreochromis sp.

In this study, we isolated two cDNA molecules encoding putative glutamate receptor subunits, fGluR1 alpha and fGluR1 beta, from an Oreochromis sp. brain cDNA library by hybridizing with the glutamate receptor cDNA, fGluR2 beta, of the same fish. The deduced amino acid sequence of the fGluR1 alpha consists of 908 residues with an 18-residue signal peptide and displays a sequence identity of 74% to the amino acid sequence of rat GluR1 subunit. Northern blotting indicates that the expression level of fGluR1 alpha in telencephalon is higher than that in optic tectum and cerebellum in adult fish brain. Reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and genomic analyses reveal the presence of variants created by alternative splicing at the flip-flop module and the carboxyl terminus of fGluR1 alpha transcripts. The amino acid sequence of fGluR1 alpha is unique in that it contains a glutamine-rich sequence inserted at the loop 1 (L1) between transmembrane domains 1 and 2. A second incomplete cDNA clone, designated fGluR1 beta, coding for a polypeptide showing sequence identity to the rat GluR1 and fGluR1 alpha was isolated from the same library. Insertion of a serine- and glutamine-rich sequence at the L1 was also detected in the translated sequence of fGluR1 beta.