Figure 1.

The C. elegans DEG/ENaC channels DELM-1 and DELM-2 share similarity with glial channel ACD-1. A, Dendrogram showing similarity between known C. elegans and human DEG/ENaC channel subunits. B, Percentage of identity between DELM-1, DELM-2 and C. elegans ACD-1 and MEC-4, and human α ENaC and ASIC1a. C, DELM-1 and DELM-2 protein sequences and alignment with ACD-1, MEC-4, α ENaC, and ASIC1a. Identical and similar amino acids are in black and gray backgrounds respectively. Gray boxes TM1 and TM2 indicate the transmembrane domains. The blue box and skull indicate the residue that, when mutated to a bulky amino acid, induces hyperactivation of some of the neuronal DEG/ENaCs (Driscoll and Chalfie, 1991; Champigny et al., 1998; Darboux et al., 1998; García-Añoveros et al., 1998; Brown et al., 2007).