Cloning And Sequence Of The Human Alpha-7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine-Receptor

A rat clone for the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) alpha 7, generated by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (rtPCR) from a region which did not exhibit significant homology to other rat nAChRs, was used to probe human cDNA libraries. A number of clones corresponding to the human alpha 7 were isolated and sequenced. The human sequence showed 87% identity at the nucleic acid level to the rat sequence and 96% identity at the amino acid level. Unlike the rat alpha 7 nAChR, the human gene does not appear to be the most divergent member of the nAChR family. The cloning of the human alpha 7 will make it possible to study the functional formation of human neuronal nAChR channels containing the alpha 7 subtype. (C) 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.