| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 生命科學系 === 91 === Glutamate receptors are the major excitatory neurotransmitter receptors in the mammalian CNS. Ionotropic glutamate receptors can be classified by their pharmacological properties and electrophysiological properties into three large families: AMPA receptors（α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate）, kainate receptors and NMDA receptors（N-methyl-D-aspartate）. Three sites of kainate receptor are edited. They are named the I/V, Y/C and Q/R sites. These RNA editing sites alter the Ca2+ permeability and kinetic aspects of channel gating. RNA editing requires a double-stranded RNA（dsRNA）structure formed by the exonic editing site and an editing site complementary sequence（ECS）. We used the dsRNA structures or ECS elements to predict if pre-mRNAs underwent RNA editing and analyzed the level of RNA editing by primer extension. We used the mfold program to calculate the dsRNA structures and predicted ECS elements from the dsRNA structures. We analyzed the level of RNA editing of kainate receptor pre-mRNA in zebrafish and pufferfish by DNA sequencing or primer extension. Our results show that pufferfish GluR5α is not edited at the Q/R site, whereas pufferfish GluR6α and GluR6β are edited at the Q/R site. In addition, pufferfish GluR6α is also edited at I/V site. We found that RNA editing is influenced predominantly by ECS elements. These results demonstrate that the presence of ECS elements in the intron can be a useful trait for prediction of putative RNA editing sites.
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