Issues

The June issue of JPG is a collection of peer-reviewed articles contributed by participants of the very special Society of General Physiologists (SGP) 73rd Annual Symposium, hosted jointly with the Society of Latin American Biophysicists (SOBLA).

Study suggests that the fragile X syndrome-associated protein FMRP can interact with different types of BK channels and modulate their kinetics in different ways.

Rockman et al. in this issue of JGP describe how NS11021 opens BK channels, which make the compound a better tool to probe physiological roles and gating mechanisms of BK channels.

Large-conductance Ca²⁺-activated K⁺ channels (BK channels) are key drug targets due to their association with a wide variety of neurological disorders. Rockman et al. reveal that the smooth muscle relaxant NS11021 activates BK channels by shifting the pore-gate equilibrium toward the open state.

The fragile X syndrome–associated protein FMRP is thought to influence BK channel function in neurons via direct interaction with the regulatory β₄ subunits. Kshatri et al. reveal that FMRP also regulates BK channels in the absence of β subunits and that these effects are altered by a disease-associated mutation in FMRP.

Suárez-Delgado et al. reveal that the rat voltage-gated K⁺ channel K_V1.2 undergoes a slow inactivation similar to the C-type inactivation observed in Drosophila Shaker channels. However, mutational analyses indicate that there are subtle but important structural differences between the inactivated states of each channel.

Zhang et al. derivatize wheat germ agglutinin with small-molecule fluorescent pH sensors to visualize proton fluxes over the extracellular surfaces of transfected cells and primary cardiomyocytes and neuron–astrocyte cocultures.