Sodium and Other Ion Channels Term Paper

Total Length: 395 words ( 1 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 1+

They cause the cell membrane to depolarize by allowing the influx of sodium ions into the cell. However due to the size and hydrophobic nature of the channel protein, it has not been fully resolved by x-ray crystallography.

The secondary and some of the tertiary structures can only be deduced from the primary amino acid sequence. Voltage gated sodium channels consist of an ?-subunit responsible for selectivity and voltage gating (Errington, Stohr and Lees; Sands, Grottesi and Sansom).
However some sodium channels also have one or two smaller subunits called ?-1 and ?-2. The protein has 4 homologous domains containing multiple potential ?-helical transmembrane segments. The segments are connected by non-conserved, hydrophilic intervening segments. The fourth transmembrane segment (S4) of each domain is highly positively charged, and thought to be a voltage sensor......

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