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. 1987 Jan;51(1):137–144. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(87)83318-0

Single channel kinetics of a glutamate receptor.

C J Kerry, K S Kits, R L Ramsey, M S Sansom, P N Usherwood
PMCID: PMC1329870  PMID: 2436676

Abstract

The glutamate receptor-channel of locust muscle membrane was studied using the patch-clamp technique. Muscles were pretreated with concanavalin A to block receptor-channel desensitization, thus facilitating analysis of receptor-channel gating kinetics. Single channel kinetics were analyzed to aid in identification of the molecular basis of channel gating. Channel dwell-time distributions and dwell-time autocorrelation functions were calculated from single channel data recorded in the precence of 10-4M glutamate. Analysis of the dwell time distributions in terms of mixtures of exponential functions revealed there to be at least three open states of the receptor-channel and at least four closed states. Autocorrelation function analysis showed there to be at least three pathways linking the open states with the closed. This results in a minimal scheme for gating of the glutamate receptor-channel, which is suggestive of allosteric models of receptor-channel gating.

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Selected References

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