CNR NANO - Istituto Nanoscienze Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche

- 28.06.2018 - S3 Seminar Leon Islas
Date and Time: Thursday June 28, 2018 - 12.00
Venue: S3 Seminar Room, Third Floor, Physics Building, FIM Department

Speaker: Leon Islas
Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México

Title: Irreversible gating transitions in TRPV1 ion channels

Abstract: Temperature activated TRP channels or thermoTRPs are among the only proteins that can directly convert temperature changes into changes in channel open probability. In spite of a wealth of functional and structural information, the mechanism of temperature activation remains unknown. We carefully characterize the repeated activation of TRPV1 by thermal stimuli and discovered a previously unknown inactivation process, which is irreversible. We propose that this form of gating in TRPV1 channels is a consequence of the heat absorption process that leads to channel opening and might reflect partial unfolding of one or more regions of the protein.

Host: Andrea Alessandrini andrea.alessandrini@unimore.it