About CHRNA6
This gene encodes an alpha subunit of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. These receptors consist of five subunits and function as ion channels involved in neurotransmission. The encoded protein is a subunit of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors that mediate dopaminergic neurotransmission and are activated by acetylcholine and exogenous nicotine. Alternatively spliced transcript variants have been observed for this gene. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in this gene have been associated with both nicotine and alcohol dependence. [provided by RefSeq, Dec 2010]

About PE
Phycoerythrin (PE, R-PE) is a red-emitting fluorescent protein-chromophore complex that can be excited the 488-nm blue, 532-nm green, or 561-nm yellow-green laser with increasing efficiency and captured with a 586/14 nm bandpass filter. PE has an excitation peak at 565 nm and an emission peak at 578 nm. PE is 240kD in size and has an extinction coefficient of ~2x10^6 which makes it one of the brightest fluorophores available and a potent donor upon which to build tandem fluorophores with longer Stoke's Shifts.