What Can Be Deduced about the Structure of Shaker from Available Data?

Summary

Voltage-gated K⁺ channels are transmembrane proteins that control and regulate the flow of K⁺ ions across cell membranes in response to changes in membrane potential and are essential for the propagation of action potentials in the nervous system. One of the most studied voltage-gated channels is Shaker. Available experimental results clearly provide specific constraints on the structure of the channel, even though the direct translation of the available information into 3D structures is not trivial. The goal of this work is to develop a computational approach to construct and refine 3D models of Shaker by incorporating and integrating available experimental data. Our approach is based on comparative modelization and global conformational optimization using energy restraints extracted from experimental data.