Abstract
Evidence gained from such techniques as patch clamp, membrane protein reconstitution, site-directed mutagenesis, and electron microscopy yields a picture of a channel as a globular transmembrane protein containing a water-filled pore. This pore provides a low-energy pathway through which ions may pass, producing a current. This current is modulated by a process known as gating. The mechanism of gating involves some poorly understood conformational transition in the channel protein that necessarily results in a large change in the energy barrier to ion transport. Many factors in the environment of the protein affect the gating process, including transmembrane voltage, membrane distortion, and binding of specific molecules such as chemical transmitters and channel modulators. Hence, the transmembrane current of cells is determined by the number and type of channels, the probability that a channel is open (gating), and the mean open channel current (for a general reference to channel phenomenology, see Hille, 1984). This work will be specifically directed at this last factor, analyzing the current through the open channel.
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© 1990 Plenum Press, New York
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Gates, P.Y., Cooper, K.E., Eisenberg, R.S. (1990). Analytical Diffusion Models for Membrane Channels. In: Narahashi, T. (eds) Ion Channels. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7305-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7305-0_7
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