title: Origin of functional diversity among tetrameric voltage-gated channels.
abstract: The aim of the present work is to relate functional differences of voltage-gated K(+) (K(v)), hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN), and cyclic nucleotide gated (CNG) channels to differences in their amino acid sequences. By means of combined bioinformatic sequence analyses and homology modelling, we suggest that: (1) CNG channels are less voltage-dependent than K(v) channels since the charge of their voltage sensor, the S4 helix, is lower than that of K(v) channels and because of the presence of a conserved proline in the S4-S5 linker, which is quite likely to uncouple S4 from S5 and S6. (2) In HCN channels, S4 features a higher net positive charge with respect to K(v) channels and an extensive network of hydrophobic residues, which is quite likely to provide a tight coupling among S4 and the neighboring helices. We suggest insights on the gating of HCN channels and the reasons why they open with membrane hyperpolarization and with a significantly longer time constant with respect to other channels.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia (INFM-DEMOCRITOS Modelling Center for Research in Atomistic Simulation) and International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste I-34014, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Anselmi
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carloni
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Torre
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D054815:Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Cation Channels; D006801:Humans; D064428:Hyperpolarization-Activated Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Channels; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015221:Potassium Channels; D024642:Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D054815:Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Cation Channels; D064428:Hyperpolarization-Activated Cyclic Nucleotide-Gated Channels; D007473:Ion Channels; D015221:Potassium Channels; D024642:Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated