Bacterial mechanosensitive channels: integrating physiology, structure and function.
When confronted with hypo-osmotic stress, many bacterial species are able rapidly to adapt to the increase in cell turgor pressure by jettisoning cytoplasmic solutes into the medium through membrane-tension-gated channels. Physiological studies have confirmed the importance of these channels in osmoregulation. Mutagenesis of one of these channels, combined with structural information derived from X-ray crystallography, has given the first clues of how a mechanosensitive channel senses and responds to membrane tension.
Blount
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Dept of Physiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas, TX 75235-9040, USA. pblount@mednet.swmed.edu
Moe
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PC
D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D004594:Electrophysiology; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D015640:Ion Channel Gating / Q000502:physiology; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011487:Protein Conformation; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D007473:Ion Channels; C086596:MscL protein, E coli