Vesicular Acetylcholine Transporter (VAChT)

SLC18A3 transports acetylcholine into secretory vesicles for release into the extracellular space. Acetylcholine transport utilizes a proton gradient established by a vacuolar ATPase. the human vesicular acetylcholine transporter is encoded by a sequence contained uninterrupted within the first intron of the gene for choline acetyltransferase, the enzyme required for acetylcholine biosynthesis in the peripheral and central cholinergic nervous systems. Thus, the VACHT gene is located at 10q11.2. Transcription of VACHT and CHAT mRNA from the same or contiguous promoters within the single regulatory locus provides a previously undescribed genetic mechanism for coordinate regulation of 2 proteins whose expression is required to establish a mammalian neuronal phenotype.