Radial Symmetry in a Chimaeric Glutamate Receptor Pore

Ionotropic glutamate receptors comprise two conformationally different A/C and B/D subunit pairs. Closed channels exhibit 4-fold radial symmetry in the transmembrane domain (TMD) but transition to 2-fold dimer-of-dimers symmetry for extracellular ligand binding and N-terminal domains. Here, to evaluate symmetry in open pores we analyzed interaction between the Q/R editing site near the pore loop apex and the transmembrane M3 helix of kainate receptor subunit GluK2. Chimaeric subunits that combined the GluK2 TMD with extracellular segments from NMDA receptors, which are obligate heteromers, yielded channels made up of A/C and B/D subunit pairs with distinct substitutions along M3 and/or Q/R site editing status, in an otherwise identical homotetrameric TMD. Our results indicate that Q/R site interaction with M3 occurs within individual subunits and is essentially the same for both A/C and B/D subunit conformations, suggesting that 4-fold pore symmetry persists in the open state.