Voltage-gated sodium channels are essential for the initiation and propagation of the action potential in neurons and other excitable cells. Because of their critical roles in electrical signaling, sodium channels are targets of a variety of naturally occurring and synthetic neurotoxins, including several classes of insecticides. This review is intended to provide an update on the molecular biology of insect sodium channels and the molecular mechanism of pyrethroid resistance. Although mammalian and insect sodium channels share fundamental topological and functional properties, most insect species carry only one sodium channel gene, compared to multiple sodium channel genes found in each mammalian species. Recent studies showed that two posttranscriptional mechanisms, alternative splicing and RNA editing, are involved in generating functional diversity of sodium channels in insects. More than 50 sodium channel mutations have been identified to be responsible for or associated with knockdown resistance (kdr) to pyrethroids in various arthropod pests and disease vectors. Elucidation of molecular mechanism of kdr led to the identification of dual receptor sites of pyrethroids on insect sodium channels. Most of the kdr mutations appear to be located within or close to the two receptor sites. The accumulating knowledge of insect sodium channels and their interactions with insecticides provides a foundation for understanding the neurophysiology of sodium channels in vivo and the development of new and safer insecticides for effective control of arthropod pests and human disease vectors.

Ion permeation through voltage-gated sodium channels is modulated by various drugs and toxins. The atomistic mechanisms of action of many toxins are poorly understood. A steroidal alkaloid batrachotoxin (BTX) causes persistent channel activation by inhibiting inactivation and shifting the voltage dependence of activation to more negative potentials. Traditionally, BTX is considered to bind at the channel-lipid interface and allosterically modulate the ion permeation. However, amino acid residues critical for BTX action are found in the inner helices of all four repeats, suggesting that BTX binds in the pore. In the octapeptide segment IFGSFFTL in IIIS6 of a cockroach sodium channel BgNa V , besides Ser_3i15 and Leu_3i19, which correspond to known BTX-sensing residues of mammalian sodium channels, we found that Gly_3i14 and Phe_3i16 are critical for BTX action. Using these data along with published data as distance constraints, we docked BTX in the Kv1.2-based homology model of the open BgNa V channel. We arrived at a model in which BTX adopts a horseshoe conformation with the horseshoe plane normal to the pore axis. The BTX ammonium group is engaged in cation-interactions with Phe_3i16 and BTX moieties interact with known BTX-sensing residues in all four repeats. Oxygen atoms at the horseshoe inner surface constitute a transient binding site for permeating cations, whereas the bulky BTX molecule would resist the pore closure, thus causing persistent channel activation. Our study reinforces the concept that steroidal sodium channel agonists bind in the inner pore of sodium channels and elaborates the atomistic mechanism of BTX action.Voltage-gated sodium channels (Na V ) are responsible for the rapid rising phase of the action potential in nerve and muscle cells. The pore-forming ␣-subunit of Na V channels contains four repeats, and each repeat has six transmembrane helices (S1-S6). The S1-S4 helices form the voltage sensor domain.Positively charged S4 helices move outward in response to membrane depolarization. The S5 and S6 helices contribute to the pore-forming domain. The extracellular linkers connecting S5 and S6 helices form the four re-entrant P-loops, which contain the selectivity filter residues. In the absence of x-ray structures of Na V channels, their homology models, which are based on x-ray structures of potassium channels, are used to explain structure-activity relationships of various sodium channel ligands, including local anesthetics (1-4), steroidal activators (5-8), and pyrethroid insecticides (9, 10). Recent reinterpretation of data on substituted cysteine accessibility of the Ca V 2.1 channel (11) in view of a the channel homology model, which is based on the x-ray structure of the open voltage-gated potassium channel Kv1.2 (12), further supports a general similarity of the inner pore architecture in different voltage-gated cationic channels (13).Sodium channels are targets for numerous drugs and naturally occurring toxins. Batrachotoxin (BTX) 4 is a steroidal sodium-channel agonist, which...

Cell homeostasis is perturbed when dramatic shifts in the external environment cause the physical-chemical properties inside the cell to change. Experimental approaches for dynamically monitoring these intracellular effects are currently lacking. Here, we leverage the environmental sensitivity and structural plasticity of intrinsically disordered protein regions (IDRs) to develop a FRET biosensor capable of monitoring rapid intracellular changes caused by osmotic stress. The biosensor, named SED1, utilizes the Arabidopsis intrinsically disordered AtLEA4-5 protein expressed in plants under water deficit. Computational modeling and in vitro studies reveal that SED1 is highly sensitive to macromolecular crowding. SED1 exhibits large and near-linear osmolarity-dependent changes in FRET inside living bacteria, yeast, plant, and human cells, demonstrating the broad utility of this tool for studying water-associated stress. This study demonstrates the remarkable ability of IDRs to sense the cellular environment across the tree of life and provides a blueprint for their use as environmentally-responsive molecular tools.

Activation and inactivation of voltage-gated sodium channels are critical for proper electrical signaling in excitable cells.