Ion channels provide the basis for the regulation of electrical excitability in the central and peripheral nervous systems. This review deals with the techniques that make the study of structure and function of single channel molecules in living cells possible. These are the patch clamp technique, which was derived from the conventional voltage clamp method and is currently being developed for ...

Short generation times and facile genetic techniques make the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster an excellent genetic model in fundamental neuroscience research. Ion channels are the basis of all behavior since they mediate neuronal excitability. The first voltage gated ion channel cloned was the Drosophila voltage gated potassium channel Shaker(1,2). Toward understanding the role of ion channel...

Ion channels are integral membrane proteins that regulate the flow of ions across the plasma membrane and the membranes of intracellular organelles of both excitable and non-excitable cells. Ion channels are vital to a wide variety of biological processes and are prominent components of the nervous system and cardiovascular system, as well as controlling many metabolic functions. Furthermore, i...

The development of patch-clamp procedures for measuring single-channel current fluctuations are described. The application of these techniques for studying secretion is discussed.