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Updated: Jul 28, 2026

Mutagenesis and Functional Analysis of Ion Channels Heterologously Expressed in Mammalian Cells
Published on: October 1, 2010
Phylogenomic analysis and evolution of the potassium channel gene family
G Moulton1, T K Attwood, D J Parry-Smith
1School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, United Kingdom. gmoulton@bioinf.man.ac.uk
Abstract:
Potassium channels govern the permeability of cells to potassium ions, thereby controlling the membrane potential. In metazoa, potassium channels are encoded by a large, diverse gene family. Previous analyses of this gene family have focused on its diversity in mammals. Here we have pursued a more comprehensive study in Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, and mammalian genomes. The investigation revealed 164 potassium channel encoding genes in C. elegans, D. melanogaster, and mammals, classified into seven conserved families, which we applied to phylogenetic analysis. The trees are discussed in relation to the assignment of orthologous relationships between genes and vertebrate genome duplication.
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