The heterotrimeric G-protein Gs couples cell-surface receptors to the activation of adenylyl cyclases and cyclic AMP production (reviewed in refs 1, 2). RGS proteins, which act as GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) for the G-protein alpha-subunits alpha(i) and alpha(q), lack such activity for alpha(s) (refs 3-6). But several RGS proteins inhibit cAMP production by Gs-linked receptors. Here we report that RGS2 reduces cAMP production by odorant-stimulated olfactory epithelium membranes, in which the alpha(s) family member alpha(olf) links odorant receptors to adenylyl cyclase activation. Unexpectedly, RGS2 reduces odorant-elicited cAMP production, not by acting on alpha(olf) but by inhibiting the activity of adenylyl cyclase type III, the predominant adenylyl cyclase isoform in olfactory neurons. Furthermore, whole-cell voltage clamp recordings of odorant-stimulated olfactory neurons indicate that endogenous RGS2 negatively regulates odorant-evoked intracellular signalling. These results reveal a mechanism for controlling the activities of adenylyl cyclases, which probably contributes to the ability of olfactory neurons to discriminate odours.

By opening and closing the permeation pathway (gating) in response to cGMP binding, cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels serve key roles in the transduction of visual and olfactory signals. Compiling evidence suggests that the activation gate in CNG channels is not located at the intracellular end of pore, as it has been established for voltage-activated potassium (KV) channels. Here, we show that ion permeation in CNG channels is tightly regulated at the selectivity filter. By scanning the entire selectivity filter using small cysteine reagents, like cadmium and silver, we observed a state-dependent accessibility pattern consistent with gated access at the middle of the selectivity filter, likely at the corresponding position known to regulate structural changes in KcsA channels in response to low concentrations of permeant ions.cGMP ͉ ion channel ͉ signal transduction C yclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels sense variations in the intracellular concentration of cyclic nucleotides that occur in response to visual or olfactory stimuli, therefore playing essential roles in the transduction of visual and olfactory information (1, 2). In many ways, CNG channels are similar to voltage-activated potassium (K V ) channels. They coassemble as tetramers of homologous subunits (3-6), each containing six transmembrane segments (TM), a positively charged TM4 and a reentry P region between TM5 and TM6, suggesting that CNG channels belong to the same superfamily of voltage-activated cation channels (7). The main difference is that CNG channels are only weakly voltage-dependent. Instead, they open and close the pore in response to changes in the intracellular concentrations of cGMP or cAMP, a property conferred by the presence of a cyclic nucleotide binding domain at the C terminus of each subunit (8, 9).Our understanding of how CNG channels open and close their pore in response to cyclic nucleotide binding is much less refined than our understanding of how K V channels gate in response to voltage. A large body of evidence, using a variety of approaches, has established that K V channels open and close their permeation pathway at the intracellular end of the pore (10-17). Attempts to extend those ideas to CNG channels have encountered some resistance. For example, studies using intracellularly applied molecules that block the permeation pathway of CNG channels, such as divalent ions (18), tetracaine (19,20), or quaternary ammonium ions (21), have shown that blockade is not state-dependent, as if these molecules can access the pore in both open and closed channels, which is in stark contrast with the blockade properties observed in K V channels (10,11,14,(22)(23)(24). In addition, experiments examining the state dependence of cysteine modification by intracellular application of methanethiosulfonate (MTS) reagents have failed to show dramatic differences between open and closed states in the inner-vestibule region (21,25,26), results that are inconsistent with an intracellular gate in TM6, as shown in K V channels (12,15).Se...

In the nervous system, A→I RNA editing has an important role in regulating neuronal excitability. Ligand-gated membrane receptors, synaptic proteins, as well as ion channels, are targets for recoding by RNA editing. Although scores of editing sites have been identified in the mammalian brain, little is known about the functional alterations that they cause, and even less about the mechanistic underpinnings of how they change protein function. We have previously shown that an RNA editing event (I400 V) alters the inner permeation pathway of human KV1.1, modifying the kinetics of fast inactivation. Here we show that the channel's inactivation gate enters deep into the ion permeation pathway and the very tip establishes a direct hydrophobic interaction with the edited position. By converting I to V, the intimacy of the interaction is reduced, allowing the inactivation gate to unbind with much faster kinetics.

Throughout evolution, enzymes have adapted to perform in different environments. The Na(+)/K(+) pump, an enzyme crucial for maintaining ionic gradients across cell membranes, is strongly influenced by the ionic environment. In vertebrates, the pump sees much less external Na(+) (100-160 mM) than it does in osmoconformers such as squid (450 mM), which live in seawater. If the extracellular architecture of the squid pump were identical to that of vertebrates, then at the resting potential, the pump's function would be severely compromised because the negative voltage would drive Na(+) ions back to their binding sites, practically abolishing forward transport. Here we show that four amino acids that ring the external mouth of the ion translocation pathway are more positive in squid, thereby reducing the pump's sensitivity to external Na(+) and explaining how it can perform optimally in the marine environment.