[Thermodynamic characteristics of the gating mechanisms of fast potassium channels of somatic membranes of snail neurons].

The fast potassium current conductance was treated as a system obeying n3 kinetics. The steady-state arrangement of the gating charges have been analyzed in terms of a Boltzmann distribution with two allowed configurations. Rate equations were obtained using the transition rate theory and assuming that each reaction was rate limited by only one energy barrier. These equations gave a simple exponential function for the voltage dependence of the rates. The single-barrier equations were used to estimate the energies of formation of the transition state.