Organisation of the murine 5-HT3 receptor gene and assignment to human chromosome 11.

We have isolated the murine gene encoding the 5-HT3 receptor (5-HT3R), a member of the ligand-gated ion channels, that mediates a variety of physiological effects in central and peripheral neurons. DNA sequence analysis of the 5-HT3R gene revealed its organisation in 9 exons distributed over approximately 12 kbp of DNA. Alternative use of exon 9 splice acceptor sites generated two 5-HT3R variants. The 5-HT3R gene, whose structure is closely related to neuronal and muscle AChR alpha genes, as demonstrated by four common splice junctions, was localised on human chromosome 11.