Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Grunder S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3536724 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov-Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Gründer Stefan S Augustinowski Katrin K
Channels (Austin, Tex.) 20120918 6
Of the three principal conformations of acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs)--closed, open and desensitized--only the atomic structure of the desensitized conformation had been known. Two recent papers report the crystal structure of chicken ASIC1 in complex with the spider toxin psalmotoxin 1, and one of these studies finds that, depending on the pH, channels are in two different open conformations. Compared with the desensitized conformation, toxin binding induces only subtle structural changes i ...[more]