Why Does Knocking Out NACHO, But Not RIC3, Completely Block Expression of α7 Nicotinic Receptors in Mouse Brain?

Alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (α7nAChRs) are interesting not only because of their physiological effects, but because this receptor requires chaperones to traffic to cell surfaces (measured by alpha-bungarotoxin [αBGT] binding). While knockout (KO) animals and antibodies that react across species exist for encoding the protein chaperone NACHO, commercially available antibodies against the chaperone RIC3 that allow Western blots across species have not been generally available. Further, no effects of deleting RIC3 function ( KO) on α7nAChR expression are reported.