Where’s the gate? Gating in the deep pore of the BKCa channel

摘要

Four α-helical segments at the intracellular entrance to the ion conduction pathway splaying open is the conventional imagery of a K+ channel opening to allow K+ ions and co-traversing water molecules to hop through the channel’s pore ([Fig. 1][1]) ([Armstrong, 2003][2]; [Swartz, 2004][3]). This