Ion-triggered selectivity in bacterial sodium channels

NALCN Ion Channels Have Alternative Selectivity Filters Resembling Calcium Channels or Sodium Channels

NALCN is a member of the family of ion channels with four homologous, repeat domains that include voltage-gated calcium and sodium channels. NALCN is a highly conserved gene from simple, extant multicellular organisms without nervous systems such as sponges and placozoans and mostly remains a single gene compared to the calcium and sodium channels which diversified into twenty genes in humans. ...

Independent acquisition of sodium selectivity in bacterial and animal sodium channels

bound state. Taken together, these unique features of the MCAK motor domain tune it to identify and stabilize curved protofilaments at MT ends. Notably, our current knowledge on how kinesins alter MT dynamics is heavily influenced by work on kinesin-13s, largely because mechanistic details of how other kinesins work do not exist. We await further studies to see if the kinesin13 paradigm is univ...

Ion conduction and selectivity in K(+) channels.

Potassium (K(+)) channels are tetrameric membrane-spanning proteins that provide a selective pore for the conductance of K(+) across the cell membranes. These channels are most remarkable in their ability to discriminate K(+) from Na(+) by more than a thousandfold and conduct at a throughput rate near diffusion limit. The recent progress in the structural characterization of K(+) channel provid...

Dynamic Selectivity Filters in Ion Channels

was permeable to molecules as large as the 630 Da YO-Pasadena, California 91125 PRO-1 dye. This experiment demonstrated, for the first time, real time changes in ion selectivity for a molecularly defined, single ion channel species (but see Petrou et Membrane ion channels contain integral pores that pre-al., 1997). cisely select their permeant ions. This selectivity an-P2X Structure-Function Ba...

Ion Conduction and Selectivity in K+ Channels