Figure 4.

Mechanism of the dielectric constant increase induced by the I287T mutation. (A) Running average of the dipole moment associated to the side chain of residue 287 assessed for the WT and the mutated (MUT) structure from the same simulations shown in Fig. 3 C. The mutant threonine is much more polarizable than WT isoleucine. (B) Mean number of water molecules found inside the WA region of the gating pore and within 3 Å of the charge of R371 in MD simulations performed using either the WT or the I287T mutated structure of the VSD (same simulations shown in A). Error bars represent the SD.