Aa. Very et al., LEVEL OF EXPRESSION IN, XENOPUS OOCYTES AFFECTS SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF A PLANT INWARD-RECTIFYING VOLTAGE-GATED K+ CHANNEL, Pflugers Archiv, 428(3-4), 1994, pp. 422-424
The plant K+ channel KAT1 shows some similarity to animal voltage-gate
d channels of the Shaker superfamily. Contrary to these animal counter
parts, this plant channel is inwardly rectifying, being gated upon hyp
erpolarization. Different levels of expression of KAT1 in Xenopus oocy
tes could be obtained by increasing the amount of injected cRNA. The r
esulting KAT1 gating and sensitivity to external caesium were signific
antly changed. Similar findings have been published regarding animal v
oltage-gated channels. The present data show that plant channels may a
lso undergo modification of their activity upon modification of their
level of expression.