Ligand-gated ion channel model

Ligand-Gated Ion Channel Models UAF's Dr. Marvin Schulte and his students are investigating the structure and function of 5-hydroxytryptophan receptor (5-HT3). Part of their approach is to construct a model of the 5-HT3 protein based on the similar acetylcholine binding protein whose crystal structure is known (Celie, P. H. N., et al. Neuron 41 907 (2004)). The protein contains five subunits arranged in a channel structure. Molecules of nicotine, an inhibitor of the acetylcholine binding with this protein, are bound at each receptor binding site. Contact Dr. Schulte (email: ffmks@uaf.edu) for more information concerning his ongoing projects.

	Highlight the "cys-loop", a conserved loop adjacent to the bound gating molecule, and the Cys-187 sidechain.	Reset
(You will be able to see this protein only if you have the Chime plug-in installed in your browser software. See the MDL Chime and RasMol Web pages for more info. Right-click on the molecule to bring up an options menu: Shift-click and drag with the left mouse button to zoom the image.) Note: this is a gzip-compressed pdb file readable only by Chime. If you want to read this file with Rasmol, unzip it with gzip.exe, or get the original 1UW6.PDB from the protein data bank.