National Center for Design of
Biomimetic Nanoconductors

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Potassium Channel

Distribution of hydrogen bond donor and acceptor side chains in a representative structure of potassium channels, KirBac1.1 (PDB ID: 1P7B). The orientation of the channel is as viewed from its extra-cellular end. The selectivity filter, which provides the backbone carbonyl oxygens to form 8-fold K+ binding sites, is colored green. The side chains of amino acids H, R, K, N, Q, T, Y, W, S, and C that contain hydrogen bond donors and do not belong to the selectivity filter are illustrated as sticks and colored blue. The side chains of amino acids D and E that contain hydrogen bond acceptors are colored red. In the crystallographic configuration, all relevant side-chain hydrogen bond donor groups are at a distance of at least 6.8 Å from the coordinating carbonyl oxygens of the selectivity filter. From Varma, S; and SB Rempe. “Structural transitions in ion coordination driven by changes in competition for ligand binding.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 130 (56):15405-15419 (2008).

The National Center for Design of Biomimetic Nanoconductors is funded by Grant Number PHS 2 PN2 EY016570B from the National Institutes of Health through the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research and is based at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Partner institutions include University of Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, Sandia National Laboratories, Wabash College, University of California, Davis, and the University of New Mexico, University of Illinois at Chicago, Weill Cornell Medical College, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.