The 70-year search for the voltage-sensing mechanism of ion channels.

ABSTRACT: This retrospective on the voltage-sensing mechanisms and gating models of ion channels begins in 1952 with the charged gating particles postulated by Hodgkin and Huxley, viewed as charges moving across the membrane and controlling its permeability to Na⁺ and K⁺ ions. Hodgkin and Huxley postulated that their movement should generate small and fast capacitive currents, which were recorded 20 years later as gating currents. In the early 1980s, several voltage-dependent channels were cloned and found to share a common architecture: four homologous domains or subunits, each displaying six transmembrane α-helical segments, with the fourth segment (S4) displaying four to seven positive charges invariably separated by two non-charged residues. This immediately suggested that

SUBMITTER: Catacuzzeno L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9545881 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature