Heteromeric K+ channels in plants.
Plant J. 2008-06-01; 54(6): 1076-1082
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-313x.2008.03479.x
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1. Plant J. 2008 Jun;54(6):1076-82. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2008.03479.x. Epub 2008
Mar 12.
Heteromeric K+ channels in plants.
Lebaudy A(1), Hosy E, Simonneau T, Sentenac H, Thibaud JB, Dreyer I.
Author information:
(1)Biochimie et Physiologie Moléculaire des Plantes, Unité mixte de Recherche
5004, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Institut National de la
Recherche Agronomique (U 386)/Montpellier SupAgro/Université-Montpellier 2,
France.
Voltage-gated potassium channels of plants are multimeric proteins built of four
alpha-subunits. In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, nine genes coding for K+
channel alpha-subunits have been identified. When co-expressed in heterologous
expression systems, most of them display the ability to form heteromeric K+
channels. Till now it was not clear whether plants use this potential of
heteromerization to increase the functional diversity of potassium channels.
Here, we designed an experimental approach employing different transgenic plant
lines that allowed us to prove the existence of heteromeric K+ channels in
plants. The chosen strategy might also be useful for investigating the activity
and function of other multimeric channel proteins like, for instance,
cyclic-nucleotide gated channels, tandem-pore K+ channels and glutamate receptor
channels.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2008.03479.x
PMID: 18346194 [Indexed for MEDLINE]