ION-CHANNEL GATING AND TIME-INTERVAL OMISSION - STATISTICAL-INFERENCEFOR A 2-STATE MARKOV MODEL

Statistical inference is considered for a two-state Markov model of a single ion channel, when time interval omission is incorporated. A sim ple method of obtaining confidence sets for the mean open and closed s ojourn times for the underlying single channel, based on the method-of -moments estimators, is presented. Time interval omission induces non- identifiability, in that the method-of-moments usually leads to two di stinct estimates of the mean open and closed sojourn times, one corres ponding to the true values and the other being an artefact of time int erval omission. A new method of overcoming such non-identifiability on the basis of one single channel record is described. The methodology is illustrated by a numerical example.