Figure 3. Some of the kinetic schemes tested for α3 glycine receptor.

Scheme 1 and Scheme 2 are Jones and Westbrook-type mechanisms (Jones & Westbrook, 1995) modified to include three (A) or five (B) binding sites. The letter D indicates distal desensitized states. Scheme 3 (C) is the flip mechanism proposed for the heteromeric α1β glycine receptor (Burzomato et al. 2004). Scheme 4 (D) is a flip mechanism with five binding sites. In all schemes, the letter A denotes an agonist molecule and its subscript indicates the number of agonist molecules bound to the receptor. The letters R and R* denote resting shut states and open states of the receptor, respectively. The letter F indicates intermediate flipped shut states that connect resting and open states.