The structures of the cytosolic portion of voltage activated sodium channels (CTNav) in complexes with calmodulin and other effectors in the presence and the absence of calcium provide information about the mechanisms by which these effectors regulate channel activity. The most studied of these complexes, those of Nav1.2 and Nav1.5, show details of the conformations and the specific contacts th...

Receptor kinases convey diverse environmental and developmental inputs by sensing extracellular ligands. In plants, one group of receptor-like kinases (RLKs) is characterized by extracellular leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domains, which interact with various ligands that include the plant hormone brassinosteroid and peptides of the CLAVATA3/EMBRYO SURROUNDING REGION (CLE) type. For instance, the CL...

Take a muscle cell, modify it over millions of years, and you end up with an exciting and literally shocking evolutionary result: The electric fish. Two groups of electric fish, one in Africa (Mormyroids) and one in South America (Gymnotiforms), have independently evolved sophisticated communication systems using these cells. Both groups of fish are incredibly diverse; one species, the famous e...

Our understanding of the pathology of the nondystrophic myotonias and the periodic paralyses has profited immensely from the use of modern electrophysiology (three microelectrode voltage clamp, patch-clamp techniques) and molecular biology (candidate gene approaches in contrast to reverse genetics in other neuromuscular diseases). In the past few years it has become clear that--apart from the n...