Structural and compositional diversity in the kainate receptor family. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • The kainate receptors (KARs) are members of the ionotropic glutamate receptor family and assemble into tetramers from a pool of five subunit types (GluK1-5). Each subunit confers distinct functional properties to a receptor, but the compositional and stoichiometric diversity of KAR tetramers is not well understood. To address this, we first solve the structure of the GluK1 homomer, which enables a systematic assessment of structural compatibility among KAR subunits. Next, we analyze single-cell RNA sequencing data, which reveal extreme diversity in the combinations of two or more KAR subunits co-expressed within the same cell. We then investigate the composition of individual receptor complexes using single-molecule fluorescence techniques and find that di-heteromers assembled from GluK1, GluK2, or GluK3 can form with all possible stoichiometries, while GluK1/K5, GluK2/K5, and GluK3/K5 can form 3:1 or 2:2 complexes. Finally, using three-color single-molecule imaging, we discover that KARs can form tri- and tetra-heteromers.

publication date

  • October 26, 2021

Research

keywords

  • Protein Multimerization
  • Receptors, Kainic Acid

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC8581553

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85117916767

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1101/2021.03.16.435698

PubMed ID

  • 34706237

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 37

issue

  • 4