This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter that, in vertebrates, is usually involved in primary excitatory neurotransmission, learning and memory, epilepsy and neurodegenerative disorders through its actions on several well characterized receptors. In invertebrates, glutamate mediates behaviors through receptors that are less well characterized. Glutamate is known to control feeding behavior in pulmonate mollusks like the pond snails Lymnaea and Helisoma through receptors that mediate either excitation or inhibition; these receptors are only partially characterized. Two receptor subunits with homology to mammalian excitatory subunits have been cloned from Lymnaea, but only one has been characterized physiologically. We hypothesize the existence of one or more similar receptors in Helisoma since glutamate excites motor neurons controlling one phase of feeding. The goal of this research is to clone and sequence excitatory glutamate receptors from the buccal ganglia of both Helisoma trivolvis and Biomphalaria glabrata, the latter chosen because a genome project is underway based on its medical importance as the intermediate host of Schistosoma mansoni.
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