Molecular forms and subunit structure of the acetylcholine receptor in the central nervous system of insects.

摘要: The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor as probed by alpha-bungarotoxin binding has been isolated from detergent-solubilized ganglionic membrane preparations the insect, Locusta migratoria. isolation and characterization of protein was achieved preparation fragments, extraction sodium deoxycholate, centrifugation on sucrose density gradient, affinity chromatography, gel electrophoresis, immunoblotting. purified migrated a single band polyacrylamide when native (Mr = 250,000 to 300,000) but also under denaturing conditions 65,000) cross-reacted with some monoclonal antibodies against Torpedo receptor. In immunohistochemical approaches using polyclonal antigenic sites could topochemically be identified at very distinct zones in neuropil locust ganglia. results suggest that central nervous system insects represents an oligomeric complex composed four identical or similar subunits thus may represent prototype recently proposed homo-oligomeric ancestral