The linker between the RCK gating ring and the S6 gate acts as a perfect spring.

Magleby/Elsevier

The gating mechanism of a K+ channel includes a perfect spring, according to Xiaowei Niu, Xiang Qian, and Karl Magleby (University of Miami, Miami, FL).

The group studied the BK channel from mice. This channel is opened by changes in both voltage and intracellular Ca2+ concentration. Depolarization drives a positively charged section of the protein outwards and thus drags apart the S6 channel domains that form the channel's gate. Addition of Ca2+, by contrast, widens the diameter of an intracellular gating ring, once again pulling apart the S6 gates.

The two control mechanisms converge on the same target—positioning of the S6 gates—so one control mechanism can be used to probe the mechanism used by the other. The authors changed the length of the linkers...

The Rockefeller University Press
2004
The Rockefeller University Press
2004
You do not currently have access to this content.