Simulation of Gating Currents of the Shaker K Channel Using a Brownian Model of the Voltage Sensor.

ABSTRACT: The physical mechanism underlying the voltage-dependent gating of K channels is usually addressed theoretically using molecular dynamics simulations. However, besides being computationally very expensive, this approach is presently unable to fully predict the behavior of fundamental variables of channel gating such as the macroscopic gating current, and hence, it is presently unable to validate the model. To fill this gap, here we propose a voltage-gating model that treats the S4 segment as a Brownian particle moving through a gating channel pore and adjacent internal and external vestibules. In our model, charges on the S4 segment are screened by charged residues localized on neighboring segments of the channel protein and by ions present in the vestibules, whose dynamics are assessed usi

SUBMITTER: Catacuzzeno L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7018989 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature