Potassium channels are specialised pores in cell membranes. They have a signature region termed the ion selectivity filter, which is responsible for ensuring that only potassium, and not sodium, permeates the membrane.
Dr Gulbis, with Mr Oliver Clarke, Dr Brian Smith and Mr Alex Caputo from the institute's Structural Biology division, in collaboration with Dr Jamie Vandenberg and Dr Adam Hill from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, has illuminated key aspects of the gating process.
Although previous studies have implicated a constriction in the ion conduction pathway in gating, this study describes a gate that is located in the ion selectivity filter.
Using the Australian Synchrotron, Dr Gulbis's team determined that once the conformation of a regulatory domain - which is the part of the channel that sits inside the cell - changes, it allows the selectivity filter to act as an on/off switch.
The findings have been published today in the journal Cell.
Dr. Jacqui Gulbis and Mr. Oliver Clarke from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, explain how potassium channels, which permit the flow of electric currents central to many of the bodys biological processes, control the flow of these currents. Their findings are published online this week in Cell.
(Photo Credit: Cameron Wells, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute)
Dr. Jacqui Gulbis and Mr. Oliver Clarke from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, have made a significant advance in understanding how potassium channels, which permit the flow of electric currents central to many of the body's biological processes, control the flow of these currents.
(Photo Credit: Czesia Markiewicz, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute)
Source: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute