Title: An overview of the potassium channel family.

Authors: C Miller

Journal, date & volume: Genome Biol., 2000 , 1, REVIEWS0004

PubMed link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11178249

Abstract
Potassium channels, tetrameric integral membrane proteins that form aqueous pores through which K+ can flow, are found in virtually all organisms; the genomes of humans, Drosophila, and Caenorhabditis elegans contain 30-100 K+ channel genes each. The structure of a bacterial K+ channel, sequence comparisons with other channels and electrophysiological measurements have enabled conclusions about the mechanism of gating and ion flow to be drawn for many other channels.