Theoretical and computational models of biological ion channels
Abstract
A theoretical framework for describing ion conduction through biological molecular pores is established and explored. The framework is based on a statistical mechanical formulation of the transmembrane potential (1) and of the equilibrium multi-ion potential of mean forces through selective ion channels (2). On the basis of these developments, it is possible to define computational schemes to address questions about the non-equilibrium flow of ions through ion channels. In the case of narrow channels (gramicidin or KcsA), it is possible to characterize the ion conduction in terms of the potential of mean force of the ions along the channel axis (i.e., integrating out the off-axis motions). This has been used for gramicidin (3) and for KcsA (4,5). In the case of wide pores (i.e., OmpF porin), this is no longer a good idea, but it is possible to use a continuum solvent approximations. In this case, a grand canonical monte carlo brownian dynamics algorithm was constructed for simulating the non-equilibrium flow of ions through wide pores. The results were compared with those from the Poisson-Nernst-Planck mean-field electrodiffusion theory (6-8). References; 1. B. Roux, Biophys. J. 73:2980-2989 (1997); 2. B. Roux, Biophys. J. 77, 139-153 (1999); 3. Allen, Andersen and Roux, PNAS (2004, in press); 4. Berneche and Roux. Nature, 414:73-77 (2001); 5. Berneche and Roux. PNAS, 100:8644-8648 (2003); 6. W. Im and S. Seefeld and B. Roux, Biophys. J. 79:788-801 (2000); 7. W. Im and B. Roux, J. Chem. Phys. 115:4850-4861 (2001); 8. W. Im and B. Roux, J. Mol. Biol. 322:851-869 (2002).
- Publication:
-
APS March Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- March 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004APS..MAR.J7004R