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The voltage-gated potassium channels and their relatives

Gary Yellen1

  • 1Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 220 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. gary_yellen@hms.harvard.edu

Nature
|September 6, 2002
PubMed

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Ion Channels01:19

Ion Channels

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Ion channels are specialized integral membrane proteins on the plasma membrane that allow specific...
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Compared to the gated ion channels, the non-gated channels, also known as leakage or passive channels, have no gating mechanism.
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The Role of Ion Channels in Neuronal Computation

A postsynaptic neuron usually receives numerous impulses from several other presynaptic neurons. The axon hillock of the postsynaptic neuron integrates all these signals and determines the likelihood of firing an action potential.
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Voltage-gated Ion Channels

Voltage-gated ion channels are transmembrane proteins that open and close in response to changes in the membrane potential. They are present on the membranes of all electrically excitable cells such as neurons, heart, and muscle cells.
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Non-gated Ion Channels01:24

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