Cooperative nature of gating transitions in K(+) channels as seen from dynamic importance sampling calculations.

ABSTRACT: The growing dataset of K(+) channel x-ray structures provides an excellent opportunity to begin a detailed molecular understanding of voltage-dependent gating. These structures, while differing in sequence, represent either a stable open or closed state. However, an understanding of the molecular details of gating will require models for the transitions and experimentally testable predictions for the gating transition. To explore these ideas, we apply dynamic importance sampling to a set of homology models for the molecular conformations of K(+) channels for four different sets of sequences and eight different states. In our results, we highlight the importance of particular residues upstream from the Pro-Val-Pro (PVP) region to the gating transition. This supports growing evidence that th

SUBMITTER: Denning EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2822122 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature