Journal
PLOS ONE
Volume 7, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037409
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Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery grant
- NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship award
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T-type calcium channels operate within tightly regulated biophysical constraints for supporting rhythmic firing in the brain, heart and secretory organs of invertebrates and vertebrates. The snail T-type gene, LCa(v)3 from Lymnaea stagnalis, possesses alternative, tandem donor splice sites enabling a choice of a large exon 8b (201 aa) or a short exon 25c (9 aa) in cytoplasmic linkers, similar to mammalian homologs. Inclusion of optional 25c exons in the III-IV linker of T-type channels speeds up kinetics and causes hyperpolarizing shifts in both activation and steady-state inactivation of macroscopic currents. The abundant variant lacking exon 25c is the workhorse of embryonic Ca(v)3 channels, whose high density and right-shifted activation and availability curves are expected to increase pace-making and allow the channels to contribute more significantly to cellular excitation in prenatal tissue. Presence of brain-enriched, optional exon 8b conserved with mammalian Ca(v)3.1 and encompassing the proximal half of the I-II linker, imparts a similar to 50% reduction in total and surface-expressed LCa(v)3 channel protein, which accounts for reduced whole-cell calcium currents of +8b variants in HEK cells. Evolutionarily conserved optional exons in cytoplasmic linkers of Ca(v)3 channels regulate expression (exon 8b) and a battery of biophysical properties (exon 25c) for tuning specialized firing patterns in different tissues and throughout development.
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