Conversion of the ion selectivity of the 5-HT(3a) receptor from cationic to anionic reveals a conserved feature of the ligand-gated ion channel superfamily.

The 5-hydroxytryptamine(3) (5-HT(3)) receptor is a member of a superfamily of ligand-gated ion channels, which includes nicotinic acetylcholine, gamma-aminobutyric acid, and glycine receptors. The receptors are either cation or anion selective, leading to their distinctive involvement in either excitatory or inhibitory neurotransmission. Using a combination of site-directed mutagenesis and electrophysiological characterization of homomeric 5-HT(3A) receptors expressed in HEK293 cells, we have identified a set of mutations that convert the ion selectivity of the 5-HT(3A) receptor from cationic to anionic; these were substitution of V13'T in M2 together with neutralization of glutamate residues (E-1'A) and the adjacent insertion of a proline residue (P-1') in the M1-M2 loop. Mutant receptors showed significant chloride permeability (P(Cl)/P(Na) = 12.3, P(Na)/P(Cl) = 0.08), whereas WT receptors are predominantly permeable to sodium (P(Na)/P(Cl) > 20, P(Cl)/P(Na) < 0.05). Since the equivalent mutations have previously been shown to convert alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors from cationic to anionic (Galzi J.-L., Devillers-Thiery, A, Hussy, N., Bertrand, S. Changeux, J. P., and Bertrand, D. (1992) Nature 359, 500-505) and, recently, the converse mutations have allowed the construction of a cation selective glycine receptor (Keramidas, A., Moorhouse, A. J., French, C. R., Schofield, P. R., and Barry, P. H. (2000) Biophys. J. 78, 247-259), it appears that the determinants of ion selectivity represent a conserved feature of the ligand-gated ion channel superfamily.