Cloning and expression of a cocaine-sensitive rat dopamine transporter

The action of dopamine and other monoamine neurotransmitters at synapses is terminated predominantly by high-affinity reuptake into presynaptic terminals by specific sodium-dependent neurotransmitter transport proteins. A complementary DNA encoding a rat dopamine transporter has been isolated that exhibits high sequence similarity with the previously cloned norepinephrine and gamma-aminobutyric acid transporters. Transient expression of the complementary DNA in HeLa cells confirms the cocaine sensitivity of this transporter.