Homecoming of the estranged GluD channels

Abstract

A recent paper by Carrillo and colleagues demonstrates that GluD proteins form bona fide ligand-gated ion channels when their intrinsic flexibility is constrained by interactions with protein partners. Therefore, Delta receptors resemble all other members of the ionotropic glutamate receptor family not only by sequence and structural homology, but also by functional dynamics.

Keywords: FRET; delta receptors; ionotropic glutamate receptors; ligand-gated ion channels; synaptic transmission.