Potassium channels can become nonconducting via inactivation at a gate inside the highly conserved selectivity filter (SF) region near the extracellular side of the membrane. In certain ligand-gated ...

Potassium channels are essential membrane proteins that enable the selective and rapid transport of K⁺ ions, a process fundamental to cellular excitability and signal transduction. Recent research has ...

For the first time ever, researchers at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) have identified a specific amino acid residue that is responsible for inverting the communication ...

Research develops a better understanding of and exerts an unparalleled control of protein molecules. For the first time ever, researchers at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) ...

Do only potassium ions pass through the selectivity filter of a potassium channel, or are there water molecules between the ions? This question has been a source of controversy for years. Researchers ...

Potassium channels are necessary for a number of essential biological tasks such as the generation of action potentials and setting the resting membrane potential in cells, both of which require that ...

They are literally channels for communication: Pore-forming proteins in living cells, termed ion channels, are embedded in the outer membrane of almost all cell types and play a crucial role in the ...

Ion selectivity is an important property of cell membrane ion channels. For example, potassium ion channels are more permeable to potassium ions than to sodium ions. The mechanism underlying the ready ...

Scientists recently completed a study in which they attempted to capture at atomic resolution a picture/snapshot of one of the two ion-bound configuration that seem to coexist within the selectivity ...

Larger K+ (ionic radius: 1.3 Å) can selectively permeate larger Na + (ionic radius: 1.0 Å) through biological potassium ion channels, with selectivity ratios greater than 1000-fold. Scientists have ...