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Cover Image
Cover Image
ON THE COVER
Illustration of Piezo ion channels embedded in a plasma membrane. The bowl-shaped channel induces extreme membrane curvature that is predicted to extend past the boundaries of the protein. This large, induced footprint may have important consequences for the energetics of channel gating, spatial localization, and sensitivity to the local mechanical environment. Image © Young et al., 2022. See https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.202113044. - PDF Icon PDF LinkTable of Contents
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Research News
How a tyrosine primes the pump
JGP study uses both natural and unnatural amino acid substitutions to examine how a key tyrosine residue controls the selectivity of the Na+/K+ pump.
Commentary
ASIC3, a proton-gated ion channel with preference for polyunsaturated lipids with specific headgroup and tail properties
Commentary highlighting valuable mechanistic insights provided by Klipp and Bankston on ASIC3 regulation by lipids.
The surprising difficulty of “simple” equilibrium binding measurements on ligand-gated ion channels
Godellas and Grosman revisit equilibrium binding assays to shed new light on pentameric ligand-gated ion channels.
Reviews
Physics of mechanotransduction by Piezo ion channels
Young et al. review and synthesize the mechanistic principles of forces and energies involved in Piezo ion channel mechanotransduction.
Articles
Structural determinants of acid-sensing ion channel potentiation by single chain lipids
Arachidonic acid (AA) is a known modulator of ASICs. Klipp and Bankston examine the structural requirements for ASIC modulation by a number of lipids related to AA. Negatively charged head groups are stronger potentiators and may interact with an arginine in TM1 near the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane.
Closed-state inactivation of cardiac, skeletal, and neuronal sodium channels is isoform specific
Combining electrophysiology and kinetic modeling, Brake et al. highlight the role of closed-state inactivation in the gating behavior of cardiac, skeletal muscle, and neuronal voltage-gated sodium channels.
Role of a conserved ion-binding site tyrosine in ion selectivity of the Na+/K+ pump
Spontarelli et al. show that Y780, a disease-relevant residue in the sodium pump’s sodium-exclusive ion-binding site, stabilizes sodium binding there through a hydrogen bond, without the participation of cation–π interactions and controls K+ interaction at the other two ion-binding sites indirectly through a hydrogen-bond network.
