Cloning and sequence of the human ?7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor

A rat clone for the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) α7, 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 α7 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 α7 nAChR, the human gene does not appear to be the most divergent member of the nAChR family. The cloning of the human α7 will make it possible to study the functional formation of human neuronal nAChR channels containing the α7 subtype. © 1993 wiley-Liss, Inc.