Abstract
Mechanosensitive (MS) membrane ion channels provide a means of transducing cell membrane deformation or stretch into an electrical or ionic signal (Howard et al.,1988; Sokabe and Sachs, 1992). They represent the most recently discovered and least understood of the major channel classes. It is only recently that information on their molecular nature has been provided (for references, see Hamill and McBride, 1994a). Yet MS channels are ubiquitous, being found in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes (Martinac, 1993). Although their role in mechanotransduction in sensory cells is evident, in nonsensory cells they have been implicated in diverse mechanosensitive functions (Sachs, 1988). There is a variety of MS channels with different gating (stretch-activated and stretch-inactivated) and ion-selective (Na+/K+, K+, Cl−, etc) properties (Morris, 1990). There also appear to be two broad mechanisms by which mechanosensitivity can be conferred on a channel. These are direct or indirect, according to the way mechanical energy is coupled to the gating mechanism. In direct coupling, mechanical energy acts directly on the channel molecule, and we refer to these as mechanogated (MG) channels. In indirect coupling the channel itself is not MS but is gated by a second messenger that is regulated by a MS enzyme or process (see Ordway et al., 1992).
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McBride, D.W., Hamill, O.P. (1995). A Fast Pressure-Clamp Technique for Studying Mechanogated Channels. In: Sakmann, B., Neher, E. (eds) Single-Channel Recording. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1229-9_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1229-9_14
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