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The Journal of Neuroscience, April 15, 1998, 18(8):2954-2961
Evidence for a Tetrameric Structure of Recombinant NMDA
Receptors
Bodo
Laube,
Jochen
Kuhse, and
Heinrich
Betz
Department of Neurochemistry, Max-Planck-Institute for Brain
Research, 60528 Frankfurt/Main, Germany
The amino acids L-glutamate and glycine are essential
agonists of the excitatory NMDA receptor, a subtype of the ionotropic glutamate receptor family. The native NMDA receptor is composed of two
types of homologous membrane-spanning subunits, NR1 and NR2. Here, the
numbers of glycine-binding NR1 and glutamate-binding NR2 subunits in
the NMDA receptor hetero-oligomer were determined by coexpressing the
wild-type (wt) NR1 with the low-affinity mutant NR1Q387K, and the wt NR2B with the low-affinity
mutant NR2BE387A, subunits in Xenopus
oocytes. In both cases, analysis of the resulting dose-response curves
revealed three independent components of glycine and glutamate
sensitivity. These correspond to the respective wild-type and mutant
affinities and an additional intermediate hybrid affinity, indicating
the existence of three discrete receptor populations. Binomial analysis
of these data indicates the presence of two glycine and two glutamate
binding subunits in the functional receptor. In addition, we analyzed
the inhibitory effects of the negative dominant
NR1R505K and NR2BR493K mutants on
maximal inducible whole-cell currents of wt NR1/NR2B receptors. The
inhibition profiles obtained on expression of increasing amounts of
these mutant proteins again were fitted best by assuming an
incorporation of two NR1 and two NR2 subunits into the receptor hetero-oligomer. Our data are consistent with NMDA receptors being tetrameric proteins that are composed of four homologous subunits.
Key words:
mutagenesis; subunit stoichiometry; NMDA receptor; glutamate; channel assembly; electrophysiology; agonist affinity; Xenopus oocyte
Copyright © 1998 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/98/1882954-08$05.00/0
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