title: Determinants of slow gating in ClC-0, the voltage-gated chloride channel of Torpedo marmorata.
abstract: Membrane hyperpolarization normally activates the slow gate of the Torpedo voltage-gated chloride channel (ClC-0). To elucidate the structural basis of this process, carboxy terminus truncation mutants and chimeras were constructed, expressed in Xenopus oocytes, and evaluated using a two-microelectrode voltage clamp. Introduction of stop codons at several positions between transmembrane domains 12 and 13 (D12 and D13) showed no expression, whereas a truncation just after D13 yielded wild-type currents. A chimera (022) entailing the substitution of the carboxy-terminal cytoplasmic tail after Lys-520 with the corresponding region of ClC-2 lacked slow gating, whereas a more conservative construct (chimera 002), in which D13 was replaced with its ClC-2 analog, retained its capacity to slow gate. These findings suggest that important structures reside within the interdomain stretch (IDS) between D12 and D13. Unlike ClC-2, in which transplantation of "ball" structures could restore gating to constitutively open mutants, transplantation of the ClC-0 IDS to the amino terminus of chimera 022 did not restore gating. Surprisingly, replacement of the IDS by the analogous regions of either ClC-1 or ClC-2 showed slow voltage-activated gating, although the gating was altered. Our findings lead us to conclude that both the functional expression and the slow voltage gating of ClC-0 rely on structures at the carboxy terminus of the channel.
authors.affiliation: Zentrum für Molekulare Neurobiologie Hamburg, Universität Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fong
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rehfeldt
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Jentsch
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002678:Chimera; D018118:Chloride Channels / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003062:Codon / Q000235:genetics; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005260:Female; D015640:Ion Channel Gating / Q000502:physiology; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D009865:Oocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D014101:Torpedo / Q000378:metabolism*; D014982:Xenopus laevis
chemical_list: D018118:Chloride Channels; D003062:Codon