title: The ascidian dihydropyridine-resistant calcium channel as the prototype of chordate L-type calcium channel.
abstract: This review describes recent findings on voltage-gated Ca channel (Cav channel) cloned from ascidians, the most primitive chordates. Ascidian L-type like Cav channel has several unusual features: (1). it is closely related to the prototype of chordate L-type Cav channels by sequence alignment; (2). it is resistant to dihydropyridine due to single amino acid change in the pore region, and (3). maternally provided RNA putatively encodes a truncated protein which has remarkable suppressive effect on Cav channel expression during development. Ascidian Cav channel will provide a useful molecular clue in the future to understand Ca(2+)-regulated cell differentiation and physiology with the background of recently defined ascidian genome and molecular biological tools.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Neurophysiology, Center for Integrative Bioscience, Okazaki National Research Institutes, Higashiyama, Myodaiji, Okazaki, Japan. yokamura@nips.ac.jp
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okamura
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Izumi-Nakaseko
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakajo
authors.forename: Yukio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohtsuka
authors.forename: Tatsuhiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ebihara
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers / Q000494:pharmacology*; D020746:Calcium Channels, L-Type / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D019295:Computational Biology; D004095:Dihydropyridines / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004594:Electrophysiology; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D015640:Ion Channel Gating / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009132:Muscles / Q000502:physiology; D021122:Protein Subunits / Q000502:physiology; D014561:Urochordata
chemical_list: D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers; D020746:Calcium Channels, L-Type; D004095:Dihydropyridines; D021122:Protein Subunits; C038806:1,4-dihydropyridine