Glycine Receptor Alpha 3 (GLRa3)

The GLRA3 gene encodes the alpha-3 subunit of the neuronal glycine receptor, a ligand-gated chloride channel composed of ligand-binding alpha and structural beta polypeptides.The amino acid sequence predicted for the long alpha-3 variant, designated alpha-3-L, was largely identical to the corresponding rat subunit. In contrast, the novel splice variant, designated alpha-3-K, lacked the coding sequence for 15 amino acids located within the cytoplasmic loop connecting transmembrane spanning region-3 (TM3) and TM4. Using P1 artificial chromosome (PAC) clones, they elucidated the structure of the GLRA3 gene. Two transcripts of 2.4 and 9 kb, corresponding to alpha-3-L and alpha-3-K, respectively, were identified and found to be widely distributed throughout the human central nervous system.