title: Regulation of AMPA receptor gating by ligand binding core dimers.
abstract: Ionotropic glutamate receptors are tetramers, the isolated ligand binding cores of which assemble as dimers. Previous work on nondesensitizing AMPA receptor mutants, which combined crystallography, ultracentrifugation, and patch-clamp recording, showed that dimer formation by the ligand binding cores is required for activation of ion channel gating by agonists. To define the mechanisms responsible for stabilization of dimer assembly in native AMPA receptors, contacts between the adjacent ligand binding cores were individually targeted by amino acid substitutions, using the GluR2 crystal structure as a guide to design mutants. We show that disruption of a salt bridge, hydrogen bond network, and intermolecular van der Waals contacts between helices D and J in adjacent ligand binding cores greatly accelerates desensitization. Conservation of these contacts in AMPA and kainate receptors indicates that they are important determinants of dimer stability and that the dimer interface is a key structural element in the gating mechanism of these glutamate receptor families.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Neurophysiology, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Michelle S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Horning
authors.forename: Mark L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Mayer
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D019281:Dimerization; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D015640:Ion Channel Gating / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D007608:Kainic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D008024:Ligands; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D008958:Models, Molecular; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D017354:Point Mutation; D011487:Protein Conformation; D018091:Receptors, AMPA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists; D008024:Ligands; D018091:Receptors, AMPA; D018698:Glutamic Acid; C104722:glutamate receptor ionotropic, AMPA 2; D007608:Kainic Acid