Title: Cloning of a human ether-a-go-go potassium channel expressed in myoblasts at the onset of fusion.

Authors: T Occhiodoro, L Bernheim, J H Liu, P Bijlenga, M Sinnreich, C R Bader, J Fischer-Lougheed

Journal, date & volume: FEBS Lett., 1998 Aug 28 , 434, 177-82

PubMed link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9738473

Abstract
An early sign of human myoblast commitment to fusion is the expression of a non-inactivating delayed rectifier K+ current, I(K(NI)), and an associated membrane potential hyperpolarization. We have isolated the full-length coding region of a human ether-a-go-go K+ channel (h-eag) from myoblasts undergoing differentiation. The h-eag gene was localized to chromosome 1q32-41, and is expressed as a approximately 9 kb transcript in myogenic cells and in adult brain tissue. Forced expression of h-eag in undifferentiated myoblasts generates a current with remarkable similarity to I(K(NI)) indicating that h-eag constitutes the channel responsible for this current in vivo.