Glutamate receptors: desensitizing dimers.
Recent structural studies show, not only how the desensitization of a ligand-gated ion channel with bound agonist can be rationalized in terms of subunit-subunit instability, but also how a previously unknown mode of interaction may provide clues into how the receptor is tetramerically assembled in vivo.
Biggin
Philip C
PC
Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Department of Biochemistry, The University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. phil@biop.ox.ac.uk
D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D019281:Dimerization; D008958:Models, Molecular; D020836:Protein Structure, Quaternary; D017470:Receptors, Glutamate / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism
D017470:Receptors, Glutamate