Journal of Biological Chemistry
Volume 279, Issue 50, 10 December 2004, Pages 52517-52525
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Mechanisms of Signal Transduction
Subunit-specific Coupling between γ-Aminobutyric Acid Type A and P2X2 Receptor Channels*

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ATP and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) are two fast neurotransmitters co-released at central synapses, where they co-activate excitatory P2X and inhibitory GABAA (GABA type A) receptors. We report here that co-activation of P2X2 and various GABAA receptors, co-expressed in Xenopus oocytes, leads to a functional cross-inhibition dependent on GABAA subunit composition. Sequential applications of GABA and ATP revealed that αβ- or αβγ-containing GABAA receptors inhibited P2X2 channels, whereas P2X2 channels failed to inhibit γ-containing GABAA receptors. This functional cross-talk is independent of membrane potential, changes in current direction, and calcium. Non-additive responses observed between cation-selective GABAA and P2X2 receptors further indicate the chloride independence of this process. Overexpression of minigenes encoding either the C-terminal fragment of P2X2 or the intracellular loop of the β3 subunit disrupted the functional cross-inhibition. We previously demonstrated functional and physical cross-talk between ρ1 and P2X2 receptors, which induced a retargeting of ρ1 channels to surface clusters when co-expressed in hippocampal neurons (Boué-Grabot, E., Emerit, M. B., Toulme, E., Seguela, P., and Garret, M. (2004) J. Biol. Chem. 279, 6967–6975). Co-expression of P2X2 and chimeric ρ1 receptors with the C-terminal sequences of α2, β3, or γ2 subunits indicated that only ρ1-β3 and P2X2 channels exhibit both functional cross-inhibition in Xenopus oocytes and co-clustering/retargeting in hippocampal neurons. Therefore, the C-terminal domain of P2X2 and the intracellular loop of β GABAA subunits are required for the functional interaction between ATP- and GABA-gated channels. This γ subunit-dependent cross-talk may contribute to the regulation of synaptic activity.

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*

This work was supported in part by CNRS, Region Aquitaine, and Université Victor Segalen de Bordeaux2 (to E. B. G. and M. G.) and INSERM (to M. B. E.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

Recipient of a post graduate fellowship from the Ministère de l'Education Nationale et de la Recherche.