Voltage-gated Potassium Channel - Structure

Structure

Typically, vertebrate voltage-gated K+ channels are tetramers of four identical subunits arranged as a ring, each contributing to the wall of the trans-membrane K+ pore. Each subunit is composed of six membrane spanning hydrophobic α-helical sequences. The high resolution crystallographic structure of the rat Kvα1.2/β2 channel has recently been solved (Protein Databank Accession Number 2A79), and then refined in a lipid membrane-like environment (PDB 2r9r).

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