Green W N, Millar N S
Dept of Pharmacological and Physiological Sciences, University of Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Trends Neurosci. 1995 Jun;18(6):280-7.
Transmembrane ion channels regulate the movement of ions (particularly Na+, K+, Ca2+ and Cl-) across cellular membranes, and are critical to numerous aspects of neurobiology. Cells express a diverse array of ion-channel proteins that vary widely in their ion selectivity and in their modulation by ligands (such as neurotransmitters) or by membrane voltage. Most ion channels are multisubunit proteins and, as such, undergo an intricate series of post-translational folding, modification and oligomerization events to achieve their correct functional quaternary structure. The means by which the cell is able to accomplish this complex process of ion-channel assembly is a topic that is beginning to be addressed experimentally.
跨膜离子通道调节离子（特别是Na+、K+、Ca2+和Cl-）跨细胞膜的运动，对神经生物学的许多方面至关重要。细胞表达各种各样的离子通道蛋白，这些蛋白在离子选择性以及受配体（如神经递质）或膜电压调节方面差异很大。大多数离子通道是多亚基蛋白，因此会经历一系列复杂的翻译后折叠、修饰和寡聚化事件，以实现其正确的功能性四级结构。细胞能够完成这一复杂的离子通道组装过程的方式是一个开始通过实验进行探讨的课题。
