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Flip-flopping salt bridges gate an ion channel

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Ion-channel gating, or stochastic fluctuation between an open and a closed state, is not fully understood at the atomic level. Analysis of the bacterial channel OmpA now suggests that one mode of gating depends on the switching of a salt bridge within the pore.

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Figure 1: Model for the OmpA gate.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Biology, University of Milan and Institute for Biophysics, National Research Council, Via Celoria 26, Milano, 20133, Italy

    Anna Moroni

  2. the Institute of Botany, Darmstadt University of Technology, Schnittspahnstrasse 3, Darmstadt, D-64287, Germany

    Gerhard Thiel

Authors
  1. Anna Moroni
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  2. Gerhard Thiel
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Moroni, A., Thiel, G. Flip-flopping salt bridges gate an ion channel. Nat Chem Biol 2, 572–573 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio1106-572

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