title: Kainate-binding proteins: phylogeny, structures and possible functions.
abstract: Recent advances have demonstrated that the family of [3H]kainate-binding proteins and kainate receptors comprise a number of related polypeptides. In all the cases so far investigated, the kainate-binding proteins from non-mammalian vertebrates have M(r) values in the range of 40-50 kDa whereas mammalian kainate receptors and kainate-binding proteins have M(r) values in the order of 100 kDa. There have not, as yet, been any reports of 40-50 kDa kainate-binding proteins in mammalian CNS and, despite the cloning of increasing numbers of cDNAs encoding new kainate-binding proteins, the relationships between these two general groups of polypeptides remain unclear. Nonetheless, there is now a wealth of phylogenetic, structural and molecular biological data available about these proteins. In this review, Jeremy Henley outlines the properties and structures of kainate-binding proteins and offers some possibilities as to the roles of these often hugely abundant proteins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Medical School, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, UK.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Henley
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007608:Kainic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D008322:Mammals; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008970:Molecular Weight; D018092:Kainic Acid Receptors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014714:Vertebrates
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D007608:Kainic Acid; D018092:Kainic Acid Receptors