Vesicle Amine Transport Protein 1 (VAT1)

Synaptic vesicles are responsible for regulating the storage and release of neurotransmitters in the nerve terminal. Northern blot analysis revealed that a 5.8-kb transcript is expressed in electromotor neurons. Western blot analysis determined expression of a 42-kD protein in the electric organ that copurified with synaptic vesicles.Smith et al. (1996) identified the sequence of 2 complete genes within 117 kb of DNA containing the BRCA1 gene: RHO7 and VAT1, an abundant membrane protein of cholinergic synaptic vesicles. The coding sequence of VAT1 predicts a 301-amino acid peptide. The authors found that a CpG island precedes the VAT1 gene, which contains 6 exons spanning 8.1 kb. They determined the following order of genes in this region: cen--IFP35--VAT1--RHO7--BRCA1--1A1-3B--tel.