title: Molecular determinants of ion conduction and inactivation in K+ channels.
abstract: K+ channel-forming proteins can be grouped into three families that differ by the number of potential membrane-spanning segments. The largest of these families is composed of tetrameric channels with subunits containing six putative membrane-spanning segments (S1-S6). Inward rectifiers comprise a second family of K+ channels with subunits having two transmembrane domains (M1, M2). Monomers in the third family are proteins containing only one membrane-spanning segment, and they give origin to minK+ channels. Joining together segments S5 and S6 in the case of voltage-gated K+ channels and M1 and M2 in inward rectifiers, there is a highly conserved region with a hairpin shape called the H5 or P region. The P region, the loop connecting the S4 and S5 domains and the S6 transmembrane segment in Shaker-type K+ channels and the COOH-terminal in inward rectifiers, appears to play crucial roles in ion conduction. In Shaker K+ channels the NH2-terminal has been identified as responsible for fast inactivation (N-type inactivation). If the fast-inactivation gate is removed, a slower inactivation process persists, and its rate can be altered by mutations of amino acid residues forming part of the region in the neighborhood of the COOH-terminal (C-type inactivation). In this review we discuss the strategies followed to identify the different structures of K+ channels involved in ion conduction and inactivation processes and how they interplay.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kukuljan
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Labarca
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Latorre
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D026902:Potassium Channel Blockers; D015221:Potassium Channels / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D026902:Potassium Channel Blockers; D015221:Potassium Channels