Typically, ion-channel biophysicists and developmental and cancer biologists rarely attend the same journal clubs. But two studies might change this, one by Caputo et al. on page 590 in this issue (1) and the other by Yang et al. (2). Both studies show that a transmembrane protein, TMEM16A [also called anoctamin-1 (ANO1)], whose expression increases in many tumors, is a calcium (Ca~(2+))-activated, chloride (Cl~-) channel. The Ca~(2+)-activated Cl~- channels were first described in the 1980s as mediating the fast block to polyspermy in amphibian oocytes (3).
展开▼
