title: The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor gene family of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans: an update on nomenclature.
abstract: The simple nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, possesses the most extensive known gene family of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR)-like subunits. Whilst all show greatest similarity with nAChR subunits of both invertebrates and vertebrates, phylogenetic analysis suggests that just over half of these (32) may represent other members of the cys-loop ligand-gated ion channel superfamily. We have introduced a novel nomenclature system for these "Orphan" subunits, designating them as lgc genes (ligand-gated ion channels of the cys-loop superfamily), which can also be applied in future to unnamed and uncharacterised members of the cys-loop ligand-gated ion channel superfamily. We present here the resulting updated version of the C. elegans nAChR gene family and related ligand-gated ion channel genes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford,UK. andrew.jones@dpag.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Andrew K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hodgkin
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Sattelle
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000502:physiology*; D017238:Genes, Helminth; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic / Q000235:genetics*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D009626:Terminology as Topic
chemical_list: D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic