Cooperative gating between ion channels

Cooperative Gating between Single HCN Pacemaker Channels

HCN pacemaker channels (I(f), I(q), or I(h)) play a fundamental role in the physiology of many excitable cell types, including cardiac myocytes and central neurons. While cloned HCN channels have been studied extensively in macroscopic patch clamp experiments, their extremely small conductance has precluded single channel analysis to date. Nevertheless, there remain fundamental questions about ...

Voltage-dependent ion channels and their gating.

Bubbles, gating, and anesthetics in ion channels.

We suggest that bubbles are the bistable hydrophobic gates responsible for the on-off transitions of single channel currents. In this view, many types of channels gate by the same physical mechanism-dewetting by capillary evaporation-but different types of channels use different sensors to modulate hydrophobic properties of the channel wall and thereby trigger and control bubbles and gating. Sp...

Gating and Permeation in Ion Channels

Signatures of protein structure in the cooperative gating of mechanosensitive ion channels

Membrane proteins deform the surrounding lipid bilayer, which can lead to membranemediated interactions between neighboring proteins. Using the mechanosensitive channel of large conductance (MscL) as a model system, we demonstrate how the observed differences in protein structure can affect membrane-mediated interactions and cooperativity among membrane proteins. We find that distinct oligomeri...