Potassium channels are one of the main groups of intrinsic membrane proteins which are fundamental for the generation and coding of signals in the nervous system to convert environmental information into a language understood by the brain. The brain carries out a variety of distinct functions and, as such, requires a large number of coding mechanisms. To provide for this the nervous system has developed a variety of potassium channels, each type with specific structural and biophysical properties related to its function. To analyze this diversity, genes that give rise to the large structural diversity of these channels are being identified and isolated to be reinserted into simple model systems, i.e., oocytes (egg) of the frog, where they can be isolated and studied in the absence of the complex functions of the intact nervous system which normally complicates their study. This project explores the structure and function of one type potassium channel that has been identified in higher animals and humans but whose function is not known.
