title: A twist on potassium channel gating.
abstract: The selectivity filter of potassium channels, the narrowest segment of the pore, permits only potassium ions to diffuse through the pore. Clarke et al. (2010) now present 11 structures of an inwardly rectifying potassium channel, providing evidence that the selectivity filter functions in channel gating and conformational changes in the cytoplasmic domains correlate with pore opening.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Lily
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jan