Spectator no more, the role of the membrane in regulating ion channel function
Abstract
A pressure gradient across a curved lipid bilayer leads to a lateral force within the bilayer. Following ground breaking work on eukaryotic ion channels, it is now known that many proteins sense this change in the lateral tension and alter their functions in response. It has been proposed that responding to pressure differentials may be one of the oldest signaling mechanisms in biology. The most well characterized mechanosensing ion channels are the bacterial ones which open when the pressure differential hits a threshold. Recent studies on one of these channels, MscS, have developed a simple molecular model for how they sense and adapt to pressure. Biochemical and structural studies on mechanosensitive channels from eukaryotes have disclosed pressure sensing mechanisms. In this review, we highlight these findings and discuss the potential for a general model for pressure sensing.
Citation
Pliotas , C & Naismith , J H 2017 , ' Spectator no more, the role of the membrane in regulating ion channel function ' , Current Opinion in Structural Biology , vol. 45 , pp. 59-66 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbi.2016.10.017
Publication
Current Opinion in Structural Biology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0959-440XType
Journal item
Rights
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbi.2016.10.017
Description
CP is a Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) Personal Research Fellow, funded by the Scottish Government. Research funds for this study were also partly covered by a Tenovus Scotland grant (Tenovus Grant Application T15/41), awarded to CP. JHN is supported by the Chinese National Thousand Talents Program, Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (WT100209MA) and Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award.Collections
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