title: Molecular regions underlying the activation of low- and high-voltage activating calcium channels.
abstract: We have studied two aspects of calcium channel activation. First, we investigated the molecular regions that are important in determining differences in activation between low- and high-voltage activated channels. For this, we made chimeras between the low-voltage activating Ca(V)3.1 channel and the high-voltage activating Ca(V)1.2 channel. Chimeras were expressed in oocytes, and calcium channel currents recorded by voltage clamp. For domain I, we found that the molecular region that is important in determining the voltage dependence of activation comprises the pore regions S5-P as well as P-S6, but surprisingly not the voltage sensor S1-S4 region, which might have been expected to play a major part. By contrast, the smaller, but still significant, modulating effects of domain II on activation properties were due to effects involving both S1-S4 and S5-S6 but not the I/II linker. Second, during channel activation we studied movement of the S4 segment in domain I of one of the chimeras, using cysteine-scanning mutagenesis. The reagent parachloromercuribenzensulfonate inhibited currents for mutants V263, A265, L266 and A268, but not for F269 and V271, and voltage dependence of inhibition for residue V263 indicated S4 movement, which occurred before channel opening. The data indicate movement outwards upon depolarisation so as to expose amino acids up to residue 268 in S4.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
authors.forename: Junying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Louisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wray
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D020746:Calcium Channels, L-Type / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology*; D020747:Calcium Channels, T-Type / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D015640:Ion Channel Gating / Q000502:physiology*; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009865:Oocytes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D014982:Xenopus laevis
chemical_list: C485995:Cacna1d protein, mouse; C498197:Cacna1g protein, mouse; D020746:Calcium Channels, L-Type; D020747:Calcium Channels, T-Type