Conservation of human NMDA receptor subunits and disease variants in zebrafish

Our findings highlight a strong conservation of human NMDAR subunits in zebrafish, with some exceptions. The ligand-binding domain, the transmembrane domain forming the ion channel, and the short polypeptide linkers that connect them are highly conserved. The N- and C-terminal domains are less conserved but functional motifs in general are more highly conserved relative to the entire domain. Overall, our findings support the utility of zebrafish as a model for studying neurodevelopment and disease mechanisms and provide a template for rigorously considering the relationship between human and zebrafish paralogues.