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Correspondence to James E. Huettner: jhuettner{at}wustl.edu
RNA editing at the Q/R site in the GluR5 and GluR6 subunits of neuronal kainate receptors regulates channel inhibition by lipid-derived modulators including the cis-unsaturated fatty acids arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid. Kainate receptor channels in which all of the subunits are in the edited (R) form exhibit strong inhibition by these compounds, whereas wild-type receptors that include a glutamine (Q) at the Q/R site in one or more subunits are resistant to inhibition. In the present study, we have performed an arginine scan of residues in the pore loop of the GluR6(Q) subunit. Amino acids within the range from –19 to +7 of the Q/R site of GluR6(Q) were individually mutated to arginine and the mutant cDNAs were expressed as homomeric channels in HEK 293 cells. All but one of the single arginine substitution mutants yielded functional channels. Only weak inhibition, typical of wild-type GluR6(Q) channels, was observed for substitutions +1 to +6 downstream of the Q/R site. However, arginine substitution at several locations upstream of the Q/R site resulted in homomeric channels exhibiting strong inhibition by fatty acids, which is characteristic of homomeric GluR6(R) channels. Based on homology with the pore loop of potassium channels, locations at which R substitution induces susceptibility to fatty acid inhibition face away from the cytoplasm toward the M1 and M3 helices and surrounding lipids.
-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid; AA, arachidonic acid; Con A, concanavalin A; DHA, docosahexaenoic acid; GluR6, glutamate receptor subunit 6; HEK, human embryonic kidney. © 2008 Wilding et al. This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.jgp.org/misc/terms.shtml). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/).
The Rockefeller University Press
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