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 a family of glutamate receptors that are sensitive to alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate (AMPA), and function as ligand-activated cation channels. These channels are assembled from 4 related subunits, Gria1-4. The subunit encoded by this gene (Gria2) is subject to RNA editing (Q/R and R/G), which is thought to render the channels impermeable to Ca(2+), and to affect the kinetic aspects of these channels in rat brain. Alternative splicing, resulting in transcript variants encoding different isoforms (flip and flop), has been noted for this gene.
