The molecular biology of chloride channels

The molecular biology of chloride channels is a new field, having begun only 5 years ago with the cloning, on the basis of partial amino acid sequence information, of complementary DNAs for subunits of the neuronal glycine and gamma-aminobutyric acid-receptor channels. The sequences of these subunits that form heterooligomeric channels revealed a general similarity with the structural motif employed by the well-studied and previously cloned nicotinic acetylcholine-receptor subunits. The principal distinguishing feature was the rings of positively charged residues within the loops separating the putative transmembrane helices of the new chloride selective channels. A great diversity of subunit types with specific functional and pharmacologic properties as well as localizations within the central nervous system have been identified and cloned. Chloride channels are known to play an important role in both secretion and reabsorption of salt and fluid across wet epithelia, and the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, cloned by genetic means, has been shown to be centrally involved in both of these processes. It is regulated by a complex mechanism involving both ATP binding and phosphorylation at multiple sites. Expression cloning techniques have yielded a voltage-gated family of channels with a large number of potential membrane spanning segments; one member is responsible for the resting potential of skeletal muscle. An entirely different low molecular weight-voltage-gated channel, possibly regulated by osmolarity changes, is the most recent chloride channel to be cloned. It almost certainly will not be the last.