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. 1982 Jan;37(1):371–383. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(82)84685-7

Structure and function of an acetylcholine receptor.

J Kistler, R M Stroud, M W Klymkowsky, R A Lalancette, R H Fairclough
PMCID: PMC1329155  PMID: 7055628

Abstract

Structural analysis of an acetylcholine receptor from Torpedo californica leads to a three-dimensional model in which a "monomeric" receptor is shown to contain subunits arranged around a central ionophoretic channel, which in turn traverses the entire 110 A length of the molecule. The receptor extends approximately 15 A on the cytoplasmic side, 55 A on the synaptic side of the membrane. The alpha-bungarotoxin/agonist binding site is found to be approximately 55 A from the entrance to the central gated ion channel. A hypothesis for the mechanism of AcChR is presented which takes into account the structural and kinetic data, which is testable, and which serves as a focus for future studies on the agonist-induced structure change in AcChR.

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373FIGURE 1
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374FIGURE 2
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375FIGURE 3
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376FIGURE 5
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379FIGURE 8
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Selected References

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