Faculty Research 1990 - 1999

The mouse stargazer gene encodes a neuronal Ca2+-channel gamma subunit [see comments]

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1998

Keywords

Amino Acid Sequence, Animal, Brain Chemistry, Calcium Channels, Cell Line, Cloning, Molecular, Epilepsy, Absence/genetics, Gene Expression Regulation, Genes, Structural, Hamsers, Mice, Mice, Neurologic Mutants, Molecular Sequence Data, Neurons/chemistry/physiology, Organ Specificity, Patch-Clamp Techniques, Restriction Mapping, RNA, Messanger/analysis, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Sequence Homology, Amino Acid, Synaptic Membranes/chemistry

First Page

340

Last Page

347

JAX Source

Nat Genet 1998 Aug;19(4):340-7

Grant

NS32801/NS/NINDS

Abstract

Stargazer mice have spike-wave seizures characteristic of absence epilepsy, with accompanying defects in the cerebellum and inner ear. We describe here a novel gene, Cacng2, whose expression is disrupted in two stargazer alleles. It encodes a 36-kD protein (stargazin) with structural similarity to the gamma subunit of skeletal muscle voltage-gated calcium (Ca2+) channels. Stargazin is brain-specific and, like other neuronal Ca2+-channel subunits, is enriched in synaptic plasma membranes. In vitro, stargazin increases steady-state inactivation of alpha1 class A Ca2+ channels. The anticipated effect in stargazer mutants, inappropriate Ca2+ entry, may contribute to their more pronounced seizure phenotype compared with other mouse absence models with Ca2+-channel defects. The discovery that the stargazer gene encodes a gamma subunit completes the identification of the major subunit types for neuronal Ca2+ channels, namely alpha1, alpha2delta, beta and gamma, providing a new opportunity to understand how these channels function in the mammalian brain and how they may be targeted in the treatment of neuroexcitability disorders.

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