Cholinergic Receptor, Nicotinic, Alpha 1 (CHRNa1)

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, or nAChRs, are cholinergic receptors that form ligand-gated ion channels in the plasma membranes of certain neurons. Being ionotropic receptors, nAChRs are directly linked to an ion channel and do not make use of a second messenger as metabotropic receptors do.The muscle acetylcholine receptor consiststs of 5 subunits of 4 different types: 2 alpha isoforms and 1 each of beta, gamma, and delta subunits.2 This gene encodes an alpha subunit that plays a role in acetlycholine binding/channel gating. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been identified. Keiger et al. (2003) surveyed the developmental expression of nicotinic receptors, including CHRNA1, in chick and human spinal cord.