Glycine Receptor Alpha 2 (GLRa2)

The GLRA2 gene encodes the alpha-2 subunit of the glycine receptor. The alpha-1 subunit is encoded by the GLRA1 gene, which maps to chromosome 5q32. The GLRA2 gene is expressed in fetal brain and spinal cord, and the GLRA1 gene is expressed predominantly in adult brain and spinal cord .

Grenningloh et al. (1987) cloned and sequenced cDNAs of the strychnine-binding subunit of the rat glycine receptor, a neurotransmitter-gated chloride channel protein of the central nervous system. They found that the deduced polypeptide shows significant structural and amino acid sequence homology with nicotinic acetylcholine receptor proteins, indicating that they belong to a family of genes encoding neurotransmitter-gated ion channels.