Electrophysiological Characterization of Calcium-Permeable Channels Using Planar Lipid Bilayer.

Numerous researchers tried to identify the key players of calcium signaling in mitochondria using molecular and cell biology techniques for more than five decades. However, only an integrated approach involving also electrophysiological techniques has finally allowed to define the components of the protein complex responsible for the uptake of this ion into mitochondria.Here we describe the protocol used for the electrophysiological characterization of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) complex: the following outline indicates step-by-step the setup of planar lipid bilayer experiments.