Background：

Glutamate receptors are the predominant excitatory neurotransmitter receptors in the mammalian brain and are activated in a variety of normal neurophysiologic processes. This gene product belongs to the kainate family of glutamate receptors， which are composed of four subunits and function as ligand-activated ion channels. The subunit encoded by this gene is subject to RNA editing (CAG->CGG; Q->R) within the second transmembrane domain， which is thought to alter the properties of ion flow. Alternative splicing， resulting in transcript variants encoding different isoforms， has been noted for this gene.