A number of affinity labeling studies have identified several tyrosine
residues in the alpha subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor
as being in or near the ligand binding site. Studies employing site-d
irected mutagenesis of these residues (alpha Y93, alpha Y190, and alph
a Y198; the notation used is subunit/amino acid/position in the Torped
o receptor/substitution) in mouse muscle, Torpedo electroplax, and alp
ha 7 neuronal acetylcholine receptors have demonstrated that substitut
ion of phenylalanine for tyrosine results in a shift towards higher co
ncentrations in the macroscopic dose-response curves for acetylcholine
-elicited currents from voltage-clamped Xenopus oocytes that express t
he receptors. This decrease in apparent affinity has been ascribed to
either a reduction in binding affinity or a reduction in the coupling
of agonist binding to ion channel opening; both mechanisms would give
rise to shifts in the dose-response curves. We have used kinetic analy
sis of ion channel gating at the single-channel level to obtain estima
tes for the rate constants associated with the ligand binding and chan
nel opening steps for wild-type, alpha Y93F, and alpha Y198F receptors
. The results suggest that the underlying cause of the shifts in the m
acroscopic dose-response curves is a reduction in acetylcholine affini
ty for the resting activatable state of the receptor. Furthermore, it
is the association rate for agonist binding, rather than the dissociat
ion rate, that is most affected by the mutations.