Elinder F, Arhem P, Larsson H P
The Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
Biophys J. 2001 Apr;80(4):1802-9. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(01)76150-4.
The opening and closing of the pore of voltage-gated ion channels is the basis for the nervous impulse. These conformational changes are triggered by the movement of an intrinsic voltage sensor, the fourth transmembrane segment, S4. The central problem of how the movement of S4 is coupled to channel opening and where S4 is located in relation to the pore is still unsolved. Here, we estimate the position of the extracellular end of S4 in the Shaker potassium channel by analyzing the electrostatic effect of introduced charges in the pore-forming motif (S5-S6). We also present a three-dimensional model for all transmembrane segments. Knowledge of this structure is essential for the attempts to understand how voltage opens these channels.
电压门控离子通道孔的开放和关闭是神经冲动的基础。这些构象变化由内在电压传感器、第四个跨膜片段S4的移动触发。S4的移动如何与通道开放相耦合以及S4相对于孔的位置这一核心问题仍未解决。在此,我们通过分析成孔基序(S5 - S6)中引入电荷的静电效应,估算了Shaker钾通道中S4细胞外端的位置。我们还提出了所有跨膜片段的三维模型。了解这一结构对于理解电压如何打开这些通道的尝试至关重要。