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Updated: May 17, 2026

Embryo Microinjection and Electroporation in the Chordate Ciona intestinalis
Published on: October 16, 2016
Asymmetric divergence in structure and function of HCN channel duplicates in Ciona intestinalis
Heather A Jackson1, Andrew Hegle, Hamed Nazzari
1Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Abstract:
Hyperpolarization-activated Cyclic Nucleotide (HCN) channels are voltage-gated cation channels and are critical for regulation of membrane potential in electrically active cells. To understand the evolution of these channels at the molecular level, we cloned and examined two of three HCN homologs of the urochordate Ciona intestinalis (ciHCNa and ciHCNb). ciHCNa is like mammalian HCNs in that it possesses similar electrical function and undergoes N-glycosylation of a sequon near the pore. ciHCNb lacks the pore-associated N-glycosylation sequon and is predictably not N-glycosylated, and it also has an unusual gating phenotype in which the channel's voltage-sensitive gate appears to close incompletely. Together with previous findings, the data support an evolutionary trajectory in which an HCN ancestor underwent lineage-specific duplication in Ciona, to yield one HCN with most features that are conserved with the mammalian HCNs and another HCN that has been uniquely altered.
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