Organisation of the murine 5-HT₃ receptor gene and assignment tohuman chromosome 11

We have isolated the murine gene encoding the 5-HT₃ receptor (5-HT₃R), a member of the ligand-gated ion channels, that mediates a variety of physiological effects in central and peripheral neurons. DNA sequence analysis of the 5-HT₃R gene revealed its organisation in 9 exons distributed over approximately 12 kbp of DNA. Alternative use ofexon 9 splice acceptor sites generated two 5-HT₃R variants. The 5-HT₃R gene, whose structure is closely related to neuronal and muscle AChRα genes, as demonstrated by four common splice junctions, was localised on human chromosome 11.