THE TETRAMERIC STRUCTURE OF A GLUTAMATE-RECEPTOR CHANNEL

The subunit stoichiometry of several ligand-gated ion channel receptor s is still unknown. A counting method was developed to determine the n umber of subunits in one family of brain glutamate receptors, Successf ul application of this method in an HEK cell line provides evidence th at ionotropic glutamate receptors share a tetrameric structure with th e voltage-gated potassium channels. The average conductance of these c hannels depends on how many subunits are occupied by an agonist.