1. SK3-1C, a dominant-negative suppressor of SKCa and IKCa channels
- Author
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Michael D. Cahalan, K. George Chandy, Vikram G. Shakkottai, J. Jay Gargus, George A. Gutman, Aaron Kolski-Andreaco, and Hiroaki Tomita
- Subjects
Patch-Clamp Techniques ,Potassium Channels ,Small-Conductance Calcium-Activated Potassium Channels ,Biochemistry ,PC12 Cells ,Potassium Channels, Calcium-Activated ,Protein Isoforms ,Tissue Distribution ,Genes, Dominant ,Transmembrane channels ,Microscopy, Confocal ,biology ,Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ,Muscles ,Exons ,Intermediate-Conductance Calcium-Activated Potassium Channels ,Potassium channel ,Cell biology ,Signal transduction ,Signal Transduction ,DNA, Complementary ,Calmodulin ,Green Fluorescent Proteins ,Molecular Sequence Data ,Transfection ,Cell Line ,SK channel ,SK3 ,Animals ,Humans ,Patch clamp ,Amino Acid Sequence ,Gene Silencing ,RNA, Messenger ,Molecular Biology ,Base Sequence ,Models, Genetic ,Sequence Homology, Amino Acid ,T-type calcium channel ,Cell Biology ,Hematopoietic Stem Cells ,Molecular biology ,Introns ,Protein Structure, Tertiary ,Rats ,Alternative Splicing ,Luminescent Proteins ,biology.protein ,Gene Deletion - Abstract
Small conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channels, products of the SK1-SK3 genes, regulate membrane excitability both within and outside the nervous system. We report the characterization of a SK3 variant (SK3-1C) that differs from SK3 by utilizing an alternative first exon (exon 1C) in place of exon 1A used by SK3, but is otherwise identical to SK3. Quantitative RT-PCR detected abundant expression of SK3-1C transcripts in human lymphoid tissues, skeletal muscle, trachea, and salivary gland but not the nervous system. SK3-1C did not produce functional channels when expressed alone in mammalian cells, but suppressed SK1, SK2, SK3, and IKCa1 channels, but not BKCa or KV channels. Confocal microscopy revealed that SK3-1C sequestered SK3 protein intracellularly. Dominant-inhibitory activity of SK3-1C was not due to a nonspecific calmodulin sponge effect since overexpression of calmodulin did not reverse SK3-1C-mediated intracellular trapping of SK3 protein, and calmodulin-Ca2+-dependent inactivation of CaV channels was not affected by SK3-1C overexpression. Deletion analysis identified a dominant-inhibitory segment in the SK3-1C C terminus that resembles tetramerization-coiled-coiled domains reported to enhance tetramer stability and selectivity of multimerization of many K+ channels. SK3-1C may therefore suppress calmodulin-gated SKCa/IKCa channels by trapping these channel proteins intracellularly via subunit interactions mediated by the dominant-inhibitory segment and thereby reduce functional channel expression on the cell surface. Such family-wide dominant-negative suppression by SK3-1C provides a powerful mechanism to titrate membrane excitability and is a useful approach to define the functional in vivo role of these channels in diverse tissues by their targeted silencing.
- Published
- 2003