Glutamate receptors mediate most excitatory neurotransmissions in the brain and play an important role in neural plasticity, neural development and neurodegeneration. Ionotropic glutamate receptors are divided into two categories, namely NMDA receptors and kainate/AMPA receptors, both of which contain glutamate-gated, cation-specific ion channels. Kainate/AMPA receptors consist of seven structurally related subunits, designated GluR-1 to -7, and are primarily responsible for fast excitatory neurotransmissions carried out by glutamate. GluR-delta 1 (Glutamate receptor delta-1 subunit), also known as GRID1, is a multi-pass membrane protein that belongs to the kainate/AMPA receptor family and is expressed primarily in the brain. Localized to the cell junction and the postsynaptic cell membrane, GluR-delta 1 functions as a glutamate receptor that regulates synaptic transmissions in the central nervous system (CNS) and is thought to play an important role in synaptic plasticity. Defects in the gene encoding GluR-delta 1 are associated with schizophrenia, a chronic and severe brain disorder.
