Background：

Glutamate receptors are the predominant excitatory neurotransmitter receptors in the mammalian brain and are activated in a variety of normal neurophysiologic processes. These receptors are heteromeric protein complexes with multiple subunits， each possessing transmembrane regions， and all arranged to form a ligand-gated ion channel. The classification of glutamate receptors is based on their activation by different pharmacologic agonists. This gene belongs to a family of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate (AMPA) receptors. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene.