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Glutamate receptors of Drosophila melanogaster
Author(s) -
Ultsch Andreas,
Schuster Christoph M.,
Laube Bodo,
Betz Heinrich,
Schmitt Bertram
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(93)81387-f
Subject(s) - drosophila melanogaster , glutamate receptor , receptor , microbiology and biotechnology , drosophila (subgenus) , neuroscience , chemistry , biology , biochemistry , gene
The NMDA subtype of ionotropic glutamate receptors has been implicated in the activity‐dependent modification of synaptic efficacy in the mammalian brain. Here we describe a cDNA isolated from Drosophila melanogaster which encodes a putative invertebrate NMDA receptor protein (DNMDAR‐I). The deduced amino acid sequence of DNMDAR‐I displays 46% amino acid identity to the rat NMDAR1 polypeptide and shows significant homology (16–23%) to other vertebrate and invertebrate glutamate receptor proteins. The DNMDAR‐I gene maps to position 83AB of chromosome 3R and is highly expressed in the head of adult flies. Our data indicate that the NMDA subtype of glutamate receptors evolved early during phylogeny and suggest the existence of activity‐dependent synaptic plasticity in the insect brain.