MmuALTA0008176-4/4 @ mm10

When NR1 splice variants were expressed in fibroblasts, the amount of NR1 molecules expressed on the cell surface varied among forms with different C-terminal cytoplasmic domains. The splice forms with the longest C-terminal cytoplasmic tail (NR1-1a and NR1-1b) showed the lowest amount of cell surface expression, and the splice forms with the shortest C-terminal cytoplasmic tail (NR1-4a and NR1-4b) showed the highest cell surface expression. Cells transfected with 1b, 2b, 3b, or 4b demonstrate different levels of [Ca2+] increase following glutamate stimulation. N-cassette: MmuEX0021891??, C1: MmuEX0021891, C2-C2': MmuALTA0008176.

The GluN1 subunit contains eight alternatively spliced isoforms produced by including or excluding the N1 and the C1, C2, or C2' polypeptide cassettes. Whether GluN1 alternative splicing affects nonionotropic signaling by NMDARs is a major outstanding question. Here, the authors discovered that glycine priming of recombinant NMDARs critically depends on GluN1 isoforms lacking the N1 cassette; glycine priming is blocked in splice variants containing N1. On the other hand, the C-terminal cassettes-C1, C2, or C2'-each permit glycine signaling. In wild-type mice, the authors found glycine-induced nonionotropic signaling at synaptic NMDARs in CA1 hippocampal pyramidal neurons. This nonionotropic signaling by glycine to synaptic NMDARs was prevented in mice the authors engineered, such that GluN1 obligatorily contained N1. The authors discovered in wild-type mice that, in contrast to pyramidal neurons, synaptic NMDARs in CA1 inhibitory interneurons were resistant to glycine priming. But the authors recapitulated glycine priming in inhibitory interneurons in mice engineered such that GluN1 obligatorily lacked the N1 cassette. Ex 5: MmuEX0021893, C-term cassettes: MmuALTA0008176 and MmuEX0021891.