Ligand-Gated Ion Channels.

Ion channels are at the heart of many biological processes such as nerve activity and muscle contraction. How are their impressive ion selectivity and highly specialized gating brought about? In recent years, X-ray crystallography and high-resolution electron microscopy, as well as photo-affinity labeling and site-specific mutagenesis techniques in combination with patch-clamp electrophysiology have provided a detailed picture of some channel proteins. Herein we summarize the main structural and functional properties of channel proteins based on the advances made mainly within the last decade. We integrate these novel insights into a comprehensive description of the class of ligand-gated ion channels.