Figure 2. Sequence alignment of ligand-binding domain of Dα7 with Human α7 nAChR subunit.

There is a 48% amino acid identity of the entire subunit sequences. Within the ligand-binding domain, there is an 81% amino acid homology, with a 58% amino acid identity. Key residues for agonist binding are highlighted in yellow and mutated residues are in red. An * (asterisk) below residue alignment denotes positions that have a identical residues. A colon denotes groups with strongly similar properties and a scoring of >0.5 in the Gonnet PAM 250 matrix. A period denotes groups with weakly similar properties and a scoring of ≤0.5 in the Gonnet PAM 250 matrix [28].