Understanding insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subtypes is of major interest because they are the main target of several insecticides. In this study, we have cloned a cockroach Pame alpha 7 subunit that encodes a 518 amino acid protein with futures typical of nAChR subunit, and sequence homology to alpha 7 subunit. Pame alpha 7 is differently expressed in the cockroach nervous system, in particular in the antennal lobes, optical lobes and the mushroom bodies where specific expression was found in the non-compact Kenyon cells. In addition, we found that cockroach Pame alpha 7 subunits expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes can assemble to form homomeric receptors. Electrophysiological recordings using the two-electrode voltage clamp method demonstrated that nicotine induced an I-max current of -92 +/- 27 nA at 1 mM. Despite that currents are low with the endogenous ligand, ACh, this study provides information on the first expression of cockroach alpha 7 homomeric receptor.