ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters bind and hydrolyze ATP. In the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator Cl(-) channel, this interaction with ATP generates a gating cycle between a closed (C) and two open (O1 and O2) conformations. To understand better how ATP controls channel activity, we examined gating transitions from the C to the O1 and O2 states and from these open state...

Opening of a ligand-gated ion channel is the step at which the binding of a neurotransmitter is transduced into the electrical signal by allowing ions to flow through the transmembrane channel, thereby altering the postsynaptic membrane potential. We report the kinetics for the opening of the GluR1Qflip channel, an alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor subunit of the...

Neurons transmit information through electrical signals generated by voltage-gated ion channels. These channels consist of a large superfamily of proteins that form channels selective for potassium, sodium, or calcium ions. In this review we focus on the molecular mechanisms by which these channels convert changes in membrane voltage into the opening and closing of "gates" that turn ion conduct...

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. When exposed to air and water, metal sulfides from the deposits of the mines are oxidized and produce acid, metal ions and sulfate, which lower the pH value of the water. An open limestone channel (OLC) is a passive and low cost way to neutralize AMD. The dissolution of calcium into the water increases the p...

Single sodium channel currents have been studied in cell-attached patches from the mouse neuroblastoma cell line N1E115. Distributions of open duration, latency until first opening, and the average probability of a channel being open after a voltage step, p(t), were analyzed and compared to predicted distributions from various kinetic models for voltage-dependent gating. It was found that, over...

The patch-clamp technique was implemented in the cut-open squid giant axon and used to record single K channels. We present evidence for the existence of three distinct types of channel activities. In patches that contained three to eight channels, ensemble fluctuation analysis was performed to obtain an estimate of 17.4 pS for the single-channel conductance. Averaged currents obtained from the...

Three-dimensional images of the open state of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor have been obtained at 9 A resolution. Comparison with the closed state reveals the structural basis of channel gating.

As Solid-State Drives (SSDs) become commonplace in data-centers and storage arrays, there is a growing demand for predictable latency. Traditional SSDs, serving block I/Os, fail to meet this demand. They offer a high-level of abstraction at the cost of unpredictable performance and suboptimal resource utilization. We propose that SSD management trade-offs should be handled through Open-Channel ...

ATP-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channels are composed of four pore-forming Kir6.2 subunits and four regulatory SUR1 subunits. Binding of ATP to Kir6.2 leads to inhibition of channel activity. Because there are four subunits and thus four ATP-binding sites, four binding events are possible. ATP binds to both the open and closed states of the channel and produces a decrease in the mean open time...

Open channel flow is traditionally modeled as an hyperbolic system of conservation laws, which is an infinite dimensional system with complex dynamics. We consider in this paper an open channel represented by the SaintVenant equations linearized around a non uniform steady flow regime. We use a frequency domain approach to fully characterize the open channel flow dynamics. The use of the Laplac...