title: Channel gate! Tension, leak and disclosure.
abstract: The crystal structure of a bacterial MscL shows how this homopentameric channel protein is held tightly shut to prevent leakage whilst at rest. By inference, the structure also shows how a stretch force in the lipid bilayer causes the channel to open. We now have a concrete picture as to how a stimulus 'gates' an ion channel.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin, Madison 53706, USA.
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Batiza
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rayment
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kung
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D015640:Ion Channel Gating; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000737:chemistry*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011487:Protein Conformation
chemical_list: D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D007473:Ion Channels; C086596:MscL protein, E coli