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Subunit organization and functional transitions in Ci-VSP

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 15, pages 106–108 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Voltage-sensing domains (VSDs) confer voltage dependence on effector domains of membrane proteins. Ion channels use four VSDs to control a gate in the pore domain, but in the recently discovered phosphatase Ci-VSP, the number of subunits has been unknown. Using single-molecule microscopy to count subunits and voltage clamp fluorometry to detect structural dynamics, we found Ci-VSP to be a monomer, which operates independently, but nevertheless undergoes multiple voltage-dependent conformational transitions.

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Figure 1: Ci-VSP is a monomer at low density.
Figure 2: Voltage-driven conformational changes.
Figure 3: Ci-VSP monomers function independently.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship (to M.H.U.) from the American Heart Association, and by grant R01NS035549 from the US National Institutes of Health. We thank Y. Okamura (Japanese National Institute for Physiological Sciences) for kindly providing the Ci-VSP cDNA and F. Tombola, H. Janovjak, M. Pathak and S. Pautot for technical assistance and helpful discussions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Susy C Kohout, Maximilian H Ulbrich & Ehud Y Isacoff

  2. Department of Chemical Biology Graduate Program, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Sarah C Bell & Ehud Y Isacoff

  3. Material Science Division and Physical Bioscience Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Ehud Y Isacoff

Authors
  1. Susy C Kohout
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  2. Maximilian H Ulbrich
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  3. Sarah C Bell
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  4. Ehud Y Isacoff
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ehud Y Isacoff.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–3, Supplementary Discussion, Supplementary Methods (PDF 289 kb)

Supplementary Video 1

TIRF microscopy movie of oocyte coexpressing Ci-VSP-GFP-Kv1.4C and PSD-95 (MOV 1403 kb)

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Kohout, S., Ulbrich, M., Bell, S. et al. Subunit organization and functional transitions in Ci-VSP. Nat Struct Mol Biol 15, 106–108 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb1320

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