Within the family of serotonin receptors, the 5-hydroxytryptamine-3 (5-HT 3 ) receptor is the only ligand-gated ion channel. It is composed of five subunits, of which the 5-HT 3A and 5-HT 3B subunits are best characterized. Several studies, however, have reported on the functional diversity of native 5-HT 3 receptors, which cannot solely be explained on the basis of the 5-HT 3A and 5-HT 3B subunits. After our discovery of further putative 5-HT 3 serotonin receptor-encoding genes, HTR3C, HTR3D, and HTR3E, we investigated whether these novel candidates and the isoform 5-HT 3Ea are able to form functional 5-HT 3 receptor complexes. Using immunofluorescence and immunoprecipitation studies of heterologously expressed proteins, we found that each of the respective candidates coassembles with 5-HT 3A . To investigate whether the novel subunits modulate 5-HT 3 receptor function, we performed radioligandbinding assays and calcium-influx studies in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. Our experiments revealed that the 5-HT 3C , 5-HT 3D , 5-HT 3E , and 5-HT 3Ea subunits alone cannot form functional receptors. Coexpression with 5-HT 3A , however, results in the formation of functional heteromeric complexes with different serotonin efficacies. Potencies of two agonists and antagonists were nearly identical with respect to homomeric 5-HT 3A and heteromeric complexes. However, 5-HT showed increased efficacy with respect to 5-HT 3A/D and 5-HT 3A/E receptors, which is consistent with the increased surface expression compared with 5-HT 3A receptors. In contrast, 5-HT 3A/C and 5-HT 3A/Ea receptors exhibited decreased 5-HT efficacy. These data show for the first time that the novel 5-HT 3 subunits are able to form heteromeric 5-HT 3 receptors, which exhibit quantitatively different functional properties compared with homomeric 5-HT 3A receptors.The 5-HT 3 receptor is the only ligand-gated ion channel (LGIC) within the family of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) receptors (Hoyer et al., 2002). Based on structural and functional homologies, the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and the 5-HT 3 receptor are most closely related; both are cation channels. The 5-HT 3 receptor is formed by a pentameric complex and is permeable to Na ϩ , K ϩ , and Ca 2ϩ . Binding of serotonin to the 5-HT 3 receptor leads to a fast excitatory response of the neuron. After cloning of the human HTR3A gene (Belelli et al., 1995;Miyake et al., 1995), findings concerning variable receptor compositions and properties led to the hypothesis that further 5-HT 3 receptor subunits and isoforms should exist (Hussy et al., 1994;Jackson and Yakel, 1995;Fletcher and Barnes, 1998). This hypothesis was confirmed by the cloning of the human HTR3B gene (Davies et al., 1999) and of two different human splice variants of the HTR3A gene (Brü ss et al., 2000). To date, HTR3A and HTR3B (Belelli et al., 1995;Miyake et al., 1995;Davies et al., 1999) are well characterized. 5-HT 3A subunits are able to form functional homooligomeric receptors after expression in Xenopus laevi...