Non-Michaelis-Menten kinetics model for conductance of low-conductance potassium ion channels

A reduced kinetics model is proposed for ion permeation in low-conductance potassium ion channels with zero net electrical charge in the selectivity filter region. The selectivity filter is assumed to be the only conductance-determining part of the channel. Ion entry and exit rate constants depend on the occupancy of the filter due to ion-ion interactions. The corresponding rates are assumed slow relative to the rates of ion motion between binding sites inside the filter, allowing a reduction of the kinetics model of the filter by averaging the entry and exit rate constants over the states with a particular occupancy number. The reduced kinetics model for low-conductance channels is described by only three states and two sets of effective rate constants characterizing transitions between these states. An explicit expression for the channel conductance as a function of symmetrical external ion concentration is derived under the assumption that the average electrical mobility of ions in the selectivity filter region in a limited range of ion concentrations does not depend on these concentrations. The simplified conductance model is shown to provide a good description of the experimentally observed conductance-concentration curve for the low-conductance potassium channel Kir2.1, and also predicts the mean occupancy of the selectivity filter of this channel. We find that at physiological external ion concentrations this occupancy is much lower than the value of two ions observed for one of the high-conductance potassium channels, KcsA.