Histamine, a neurotransmitter and neuroregulatory compound in diverse species1, serves as the neurotransmitter of photoreceptors in insects and other arthropods by directly activating a chloride channel2. By systematic expression screening of novel putative ligand-gated anion channels predicted from the Drosophila genome project, we identified two cDNAs (DM-HisCl-1 and -2) coding for putative histamine-gated chloride channels by functional expression in Xenopus laevis oocytes. DM-HisCl-1 mRNA localizes in the lamina region of the Drosophila eye, supporting the idea that DM-HisCl-1 may be a neurotransmitter receptor for histamine in the visual system.
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