The product of this gene belongs to the ligand-gated ionic channel (TC 1.A.9) family. It encodes the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor which is a multisubunit chloride channel that mediates the fastest inhibitory synaptic transmission in the central nervous system. This gene encodes an epsilon subunit. It is mapped to chromosome Xq28 in a cluster comprised of genes encoding alpha 3, beta 4 and theta subunits of the same receptor. Alternatively spliced transcript variants have been identified, but only one is thought to encode a protein. [provided by RefSeq, Oct 2008]
Forensic Context
A study in human post-mortem brain samples demonstrated that the GABRE mRNA showed no significant change in expression in the hippocampal dentate gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, or dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of individuals with chronic alcohol dependence compared to controls [Jin et al. DOI:10.3389/Fncel.2011.00030].