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Acetylcholine receptor/channel molecules of insects

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Comparative Molecular Neurobiology

Part of the book series: EXS ((EXS,volume 63))

Summary

Acetylcholine-gated ion channels of the nicotinic type are abundant in the nervous system of insects. The channels are permeable to Na+, K+ and probably Ca2+, and unlike most vertebrate neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors the receptor/channel molecule is blocked by α-bungarotoxin (α-Bgt). Such α-Bgt-sensitive receptors are present at synapses and on cell bodies of insect neurones. Single channel recordings have shown the existence of multiple conductances of nAChRs. Studies on several different insect preparations have provided evidence for more than one open state and several closed states of insect nAChRs. Functional insect nAChR channels have now been investigated in situ, following reconstitution of a purified protein in bilayers, and as a result of expressing in Xenopus oocytes messenger RNA encoding receptor subunits.

Molecular cloning of putative nAChR α-subunits and non- α-subunits has been reported from the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster and the locust Schistocerca gregaria. One of these, αLl, from the locust exhibits many of the pharmacological properties of in situ insect nAChRs when messenger RNA encoding this subunit is expressed in oocytes of Xenopus laevis.

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  1. AFRC Laboratory of Molecular Signalling, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, England

    C. A. Leech & D. B. Sattelle

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  1. C. A. Leech
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  1. Equipe de Neurobiologie, C.N.R.S.-Université de Rennes I, Bât. 13-Complexe Univ. de Beaulieu, F-35042, Rennes Cedex, France

    Yves Pichon

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Leech, C.A., Sattelle, D.B. (1993). Acetylcholine receptor/channel molecules of insects. In: Pichon, Y. (eds) Comparative Molecular Neurobiology. EXS, vol 63. Birkhäuser Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7265-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7265-2_5

  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser Basel

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-0348-7267-6

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