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XB-ART-12809
J Neurosci 1999 Jul 01;1913:5348-59. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.19-13-05348.1999.
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The Caenorhabditis elegans unc-49 locus encodes multiple subunits of a heteromultimeric GABA receptor.

Bamber BA, Beg AA, Twyman RE, Jorgensen EM.


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Ionotropic GABA receptors generally require the products of three subunit genes. By contrast, the GABA receptor needed for locomotion in Caenorhabditis elegans requires only the unc-49 gene. We cloned unc-49 and demonstrated that it possesses an unusual overlapping gene structure. unc-49 contains a single copy of a GABA receptor N terminus, followed by three tandem copies of a GABA receptor C terminus. Using a single promoter, unc-49 generates three distinct GABAA receptor-like subunits by splicing the N terminus to each of the three C-terminal repeats. This organization suggests that the three UNC-49 subunits (UNC-49A, UNC-49B, and UNC-49C) are coordinately rescued and therefore might coassemble to form a heteromultimeric GABA receptor. Surprisingly, only UNC-49B and UNC-49C are expressed at high levels, whereas UNC-49A expression is barely detectable. Green fluorescent protein-tagged UNC-49B and UNC-49C subunits are coexpressed in muscle cells and are colocalized to synaptic regions. UNC-49B and UNC-49C also coassemble efficiently in Xenopus oocytes and HEK-293 cells to form a heteromeric GABA receptor. Together these data argue that UNC-49B and UNC-49C coassemble at the C. elegans neuromuscular junction. Thus, C. elegans is able to encode a heteromeric GABA receptor with a single locus.

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Species referenced: Xenopus laevis
Genes referenced: gabarap

References [+] :
Alfonso, Alternative splicing leads to two cholinergic proteins in Caenorhabditis elegans. 1994, Pubmed