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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Crystal Structure of the N-terminal Domain of Ryanodine Receptor from Plutella xylostella
Published on: November 30, 2018
Physical coupling between ryanodine receptor-calcium release channels
Chang-Cheng Yin1, Lynda M Blayney, F Anthony Lai
1Department of Biophysics, Peking University Health Science Center, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China. ccyin@bjmu.edu.cn
Abstract:
Ryanodine receptor-calcium release channels play a pivotal role in the calcium signaling that mediates muscle excitation-contraction coupling. Their membrane organization into regular patterns, functional gating studies and theoretical analysis of receptor clustering have led to models that invoke allosteric interaction between individual channel oligomers as a critical mechanism for control of calcium release. Here we show that in reconstituted "checkerboard-like" lattices that mimic in situ membrane channel arrays, each oligomer is interlocked physically with four adjacent oligomers via a specific domain-domain interaction. Direct physical coupling between ryanodine receptors provides structural evidence for an inter-oligomer allosteric mechanism in channel regulation. Therefore, in addition to established cytosolic and luminal regulation of function, these observations indicate that channel-channel communication through physical coupling provides a novel mode of regulation of intracellular calcium release channels.
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