Elucidation of Biophysical and Biological Properties of Voltage-gated Potassium Channels

  1. T.J. Baldwin,
  2. E. Isacoff,
  3. M. Li,
  4. G.A. Lopez,
  5. M. Sheng,
  6. M.L. Tsaur,
  7. Y.N. Jan, and
  8. L.Y. Jan
  1. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Departments of Physiology and Biochemistry, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143-0724

This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.

Excerpt

The control of electrical potential and ionic fluxes across a cell-surface membrane is an essential element in governing numerous properties of all cell types. Potassium channels comprise a group of functionally heterogeneous polypeptides expressed in the surface membrane of almost all eukaryotic cells. They appear to be involved in a variety of cellular functions, including the regulation of membrane potential, secretion, and cell motility (for review, see Jan and Jan 1989; Ashcroft and Ashcroft 1990; Hille 1991). Voltage-gated potassium channels characteristically open in response to membrane depolarization and are selectively permeant to potassium ions. On the basis of their kinetic properties, these channels have been divided into the A-type potassium channels that inactivate rapidly after opening and the class of delayed rectifiers that show little inactivation.

In the nervous system, voltage-gated potassium channels have been implicated in regulating neuronal excitability and the strength of signaling between neurons (Kandel and Schwartz...

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