Molecular Dynamics of Channelrhodopsin at the Early Stages of Channel Opening.

ABSTRACT: Channelrhodopsin (ChR) is a light-gated cation channel that responds to blue light. Since ChR can be readily expressed in specific neurons to precisely control their activities by light, it has become a powerful tool in neuroscience. Although the recently solved crystal structure of a chimeric ChR, C1C2, provided the structural basis for ChR, our understanding of the molecular mechanism of ChR still remains limited. Here we performed electrophysiological analyses and all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, to investigate the importance of the intracellular and central constrictions of the ion conducting pore observed in the crystal structure of C1C2. Our electrophysiological analysis revealed that two glutamate residues, Glu122 and Glu129, in the intracellular and central constrictio

SUBMITTER: Takemoto M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4482709 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature