Issues

One year after implementing a policy to include at least one female reviewer for each manuscript, we review the effectiveness of our strategy.

JGP study uses MD simulations to investigate the gating and conductance of the inwardly rectifying potassium channel GIRK2.

Allard reviews a new powerful method allowing measurement of intracellular ion activity in isolated skeletal muscle fibers.

Cowgill and Chanda discuss the importance of voltage clamp fluorometry to the functional interpretation of ion channel and transporter structures.

Bailey et al. review a new neurological channelopathy associated with KCNMA1, encoding the BK voltage- and Ca²⁺-activated K⁺ channel.

HCN channel opening is facilitated by cyclic nucleotides, but what determines the sensitivity of these channels to cAMP or cGMP is unclear. Ng et al. propose that ligand sensitivity depends on negative cooperativity and the asymmetric effects of ligand binding on channel structure and pore opening.

Through experiment and simulation, Katta et al. reveal that pushing faster and deeper recruits more and more distant mechano-electrical transduction channels during touch. The net result is a dynamic receptive field whose size and shape depends on tissue mechanics, stimulus parameters, and channel distribution within sensory neurons.

G-protein–gated inwardly rectifying potassium channels are important mediators of inhibitory neurotransmission. Based on microsecond-scale molecular dynamics simulations, Bernsteiner et al. propose novel gating details that may enable K⁺ flux via a direct knock-on mechanism.