Inositol trisphosphate receptor (InsP3R) is a membrane
glycoprotein complex acting as a
Ca2+ channel activated by
inositol trisphosphate (InsP3). InsP3R is very diverse among organisms, and is necessary for the control of cellular and physiological processes including cell division, cell proliferation, apoptosis, fertilization, development, behavior, learning and memory.
Inositol triphosphate receptor represents a dominant second messenger leading to the release of Ca
2+ from intracellular store sites. There is strong evidence suggesting that the InsP3R plays an important role in the conversion of external stimuli to intracellular Ca
2+ signals characterized by complex patterns relative to both space and time, such as Ca
2+ waves and oscillations.
Discovery
The InsP3 receptor was first purified from rat cerebellum by neuroscientists Surachai Supattapone and Solomon Snyder at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
The cDNA of the InsP3 receptor was first cloned in the laboratory of Katsuhiko Mikoshiba. The initial sequencing was reported as an unknown protein enriched in the cerebellum called P400.
The large size of this
open reading frame
In molecular biology, reading frames are defined as spans of DNA sequence between the start and stop codons. Usually, this is considered within a studied region of a prokaryotic DNA sequence, where only one of the six possible reading frames ...
indicated a molecular weight similar to the protein purified biochemically, and soon thereafter it was confirmed that the protein p400 was in fact the inositol trisphosphate receptor.
Distribution
The receptor has a broad tissue distribution but is especially abundant in the
cerebellum
The cerebellum (: cerebella or cerebellums; Latin for 'little brain') is a major feature of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. Although usually smaller than the cerebrum, in some animals such as the mormyrid fishes it may be as large as it or eve ...
. Most of the InsP3Rs are found integrated into the
endoplasmic reticulum
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a part of a transportation system of the eukaryote, eukaryotic cell, and has many other important functions such as protein folding. The word endoplasmic means "within the cytoplasm", and reticulum is Latin for ...
.
Structure
Several X-ray crystallographic and electron cryomicroscopic (cryo-EM) structures of IP
3Rs from mouse, rat, and human have defined the overall architecture of the channel. The 1.2 MDa C4-symmetric assembly consists of an ER-embedded transmembrane domain (TMD) in a domain-swapped 6 transmembrane (6TM) cation channel fold that is capped by a large cytosolic domain (CD). In this manner, IP
3Rs share significant homology with the much larger and distantly-related RyRs. The CD contains all known ligand binding sites, including the IP
3 binding site, two Ca
2+ binding sites, an adenine nucleotide binding site, and a C
2H
2 Zn
2+ finger fold. A comprehensive Ca
2+-dependent conformational landscape has been defined by cryo-EM.
See also
*
Inositol
*
Inositol phosphate
**
Inositol monophosphate
**
Inositol trisphosphate
**
Inositol pentakisphosphate
**
Inositol hexaphosphate
*
MRVI1 associated through complex formation.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inositol Trisphosphate Receptor
Signal transduction
Transmembrane receptors
Inositol