FIGURE 1.
Full-length snail LCav3 is the largest identified voltage-gated ion channel expressed to date. It is coded by a 9031-bp cDNA transcript that forms a 2886-amino acid protein with a molecular mass of 322 kDa. A, the N terminus closely matches with a putative start site derived from marine snail A. californica EST (EB302921) and slightly resembles the N and C termini of human Cav3.1–3.3. B, LCav3 is 1.25× larger than human Cav3 channels and 1.5× larger than nematode T-type, cca-1B, and all other four repeat ion channels. C, LCav3 is larger than human Cav3 channels in the N and C terminus and also the I-II and II-III cytoplasmic linkers.