Referenced in: none

Automatically associated channels: Kv2.1

Title: Application of oscillating potentials to the Shaker potassium channel.

Authors: A Kargol, A Hosein-Sooklal, L Constantin, M Przestalski

Journal, date & volume: Gen. Physiol. Biophys., 2004 Mar , 23, 53-75

PubMed link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15270129

Abstract
Nonequilibrium response spectroscopy (NRS) has been proposed recently to complement standard electrophysiological techniques used to investigate ion channels. It involves application of rapidly oscillating potentials that drive the ion channel ensemble far from equilibrium. It is argued that new, so far undiscovered features of ion channel gating kinetics may become apparent under such nonequilibrium conditions. In this paper we explore the possibility of using regular, sinusoidal voltages with the NRS protocols to facilitate Markov model selection for ion channels. As a test case we consider the Shaker potassium channel for which various Markov models have been proposed recently. We concentrate on certain classes of such models and show that while some models might be virtually indistinguishable using standard methods, they show marked differences when driven with an oscillating voltage. Model currents are compared to experimental data obtained for the Shaker K+ channel expressed in mammalian cells (tsA 201).