The nicotinic acetylcholine (ACh) receptors cycle among classes of nonconducting resting states, conducting open states, and nonconducting desensitized states. We previously probed the structure of the mouse-muscle ACh receptor channel in the resting state obtained in the absence of agonist and in the open states obtained after brief exposure to ACh. We now have probed the structure in the stable desensitized state obtained after many minutes of exposure to ACh. Muscle-type receptor has the subunit composition ␣2␤␥␦. Each subunit has four membrane-spanning segments, M1-M4. The channel lumen in the membrane domain is lined largely by M2 and to a lesser extent by M1 from each of the subunits. We determined the rates of reaction of a small, sulfhydryl-specific, charged reagent, 2-aminoethyl methanethiosulfonate with cysteines substituted for residues in ␣M2 and the ␣M1-M2 loop in the desensitized state and compared these rates to rates previously obtained in the resting and open states. The reaction rates of the substituted cysteines are different in the three functional states of the receptor, indicating significant structural differences. By comparing the rates of reaction of extracellularly and intracellularly added 2-aminoethyl methanethiosulfonate, we previously located the closed gate in the resting state between ␣G240 and ␣T244, in the predicted M1-M2 loop at the intracellular end of M2. Now, we have located the closed gate in the stable desensitized state between ␣G240 and ␣L251. The gate in the desensitized state includes the resting state gate and an extension further into M2.T he nicotinic acetylcholine (ACh) receptors cycle among three classes of functional states: resting, open, and desensitized (1). The receptor is conducting in the open state and nonconducting in the resting and desensitized states. The resting state is the most stable state when no agonist is bound, whereas the desensitized state is the most stable state when agonist is bound. Muscle-type ACh receptors have two ACh binding sites corresponding to the two ␣ subunits in the pentameric complex (Fig. 1, refs. 2 and 3). In the prevailing cycle of transitions, receptors in the resting state bind two molecules of ACh, isomerize to the open state, and, in the continued presence of ACh eventually desensitize. After the removal of free ACh and its dissociation from the binding sites, receptors in the desensitized state predominantly isomerize directly to the resting state. This cycle of activation, desensitization, and recovery has been extensively studied electrophysiologically (1, 4-7). The role of desensitization in cholinergic neurotransmission under normal physiological conditions is uncertain but is evident under some pathological conditions and in neurotransmission by other neurotransmitters (8).Desensitization occurs in stages (9). Receptor isomerizes to a transient, fast-onset desensitized state on the 0.1-to 10-s time scale and to a stable, slow-onset desensitized state on the 10-to 100-s time scale (10-17). The ACh affinities of the...