Description
Product Characteristics:
Glutamate receptors mediate most excitatory neurotransmission in the brain and play an important role in neural plasticity, neural development and neurodegeneration. Ionotropic glutamate receptors are categorized into NMDA receptors and kainate/AMPA receptors, both of which contain glutamate-gated, cation-specific ion channels. Kainate/AMPA receptors are co-localized with NMDA receptors in many synapses and consist of seven structurally related subunits designated GluR-1 to -7. The kainate/AMPA receptors are primarily responsible for the fast excitatory neuro-transmission by glutamate, whereas the NMDA receptors are functionally characterized by a slow kinetic and a high permeability for Ca2+ ions. The NMDA receptors consist of five subunits: epsilion 1, 2, 3, 4 and one zeta subunit. The zeta subunit is expressed throughout the brainstem, whereas the four epsilon subunits display limited distribution.
Subcellular location: Cell membrane
Synonyms: GluR-5/6/7, EAA3, EEA3, Excitatory amino acid receptor 3, GLR5, GluR-5, GluR5, GluR6, GluR7, Glutamate receptor 5, Glutamate receptor, Glutamate receptor ionotropic kainate 1, GRIK1, GRIK1_HUMAN, Human glutamate receptor GLUR5, ionotropic kainate 1, OTTHUMP00000096569.
Target Information: Glutamate receptors are the predominant excitatory neurotransmitter receptors in the mammalian brain and are activated in a variety of normal neurophysiologic processes. This gene product belongs to the kainate family of glutamate receptors, which are composed of four subunits and function as ligand-activated ion channels. The subunit encoded by this gene is subject to RNA editing (CAG->CGG\, Q->R) within the second transmembrane domain, which is thought to alter the properties of ion flow. Alternative splicing, resulting in transcript variants encoding different isoforms, has been noted for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]