|
|
||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Received September 1, 2006
Revised September 18, 2006
Accepted after revision September 18, 2006
1 UTHSCSA
2 UTHS
3 UAB
4 Solae
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: weissd{at}uthscsa.edu.
Picrotoxin, a potent antagonist of the inhibitory central nervous system GABAA and glycine receptors, is believed to interact with residues that line the central ion pore. These pore-lining residues are in the second transmembrane domain (TM2) of each of the five contributing subunits. One of these amino acids, a threonine at the 6 location, when mutated to phenylalanine, abolishes picrotoxin sensitivity. It has been suggested that this threonine, via hydrogen bonding, directly interacts with the picrotoxin molecule. We previously demonstrated that this mutation, in either the
,
, or
subunit, can impart picrotoxin resistance to the GABA receptor. Since the functional pentameric GABA receptor contains two
subunits, two
subunits, and one
subunit, it is not clear how many
and
subunits must carry this mutation to impart the resistant phenotype. In this study, by co-expression of mutant
or
subunits with their wild type counterparts in various defined ratios, we demonstrate that any single subunit carrying the 6' mutation imparts picrotoxin resistance. Implications of this finding in terms of the mechanism of antagonism are considered.
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
B. E. Erkkila, A. V. Sedelnikova, and D. S. Weiss Stoichiometric Pore Mutations of the GABAAR Reveal a Pattern of Hydrogen Bonding with Picrotoxin Biophys. J., June 1, 2008; 94(11): 4299 - 4306. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
A. Rosen, M. Bali, J. Horenstein, and M. H. Akabas Channel Opening by Anesthetics and GABA Induces Similar Changes in the GABAA Receptor M2 Segment Biophys. J., May 1, 2007; 92(9): 3130 - 3139. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH |