Abstract
The gating of different potassium channels depends on many diverse factors. We now report a unique example of a K+ channel with a Cl - dependence. The slo-2 gene was cloned from Caenorhabditis elegans and is widely expressed in both neurons and muscles; it was highly abundant, as suggested by its high representation in the C. elegans EST database. SLO-2, like its paralogue, SLO-1, was also dependent on Ca 2+. We show by site-directed mutagenesis that its requirements for both Cl- and Ca2+ are synergistic and associated with the same functional domain. SLO-2's dependence on Cl - implies that intracellular Cl- homeostasis may be important in regulating cellular excitability through this unusual K+ channel.
Publication types
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Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
MeSH terms
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Amino Acid Sequence
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Animals
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Animals, Genetically Modified
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Caenorhabditis elegans
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Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins*
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Calcium / pharmacology
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Chlorides / pharmacology
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Chlorides / physiology*
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Conserved Sequence
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Green Fluorescent Proteins
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Helminth Proteins / physiology
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Large-Conductance Calcium-Activated Potassium Channels
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Luminescent Proteins / genetics
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Mammals
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Membrane Transport Proteins*
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Molecular Sequence Data
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Muscles / physiology
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Neurons / physiology*
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Potassium Channels / chemistry
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Potassium Channels / genetics
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Potassium Channels / physiology*
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Potassium Channels, Calcium-Activated*
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Sequence Alignment
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Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Substances
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Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
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Chlorides
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Helminth Proteins
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Large-Conductance Calcium-Activated Potassium Channels
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Luminescent Proteins
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Membrane Transport Proteins
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Potassium Channels
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Potassium Channels, Calcium-Activated
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SLO-2 protein, C elegans
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Green Fluorescent Proteins
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Calcium