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RU Newswire: Rockefeller University researchers decipher the shape of the sodium/potassium ion pump (609 words) |
 | The sodium/potassium (Na/K) ion pump is one of the most prevalent: It occurs in every cell in the human body, and is a frequent target of heart-failure medications. |
| Many of the residues in an ion pump have an electrical charge that works to either draw in or repel approaching ions, allowing only those with the correct charge to flow through to their destination. |
| By altering the two residues it binds to and measuring the resulting change in the ion stream, the scientists were able to determine where those residues are located: in a wide opening near the mouth of the channel. |
| LEARNING, MEMORY AND PLASTICITY (5673 words) |
| (The calcium ion concentration in the extracellular space is over 10,000 times as great as it is in the presynaptic cytoplasm.) The calcium ions cause vesicles containing neurotransmitter to fuse with the presynaptic membrane and release neurotransmitter into the synaptic cleft. |
| Indirectly-gated ion channels are not connected to receptors on the cell membrane, but are controlled through second messengers. |
| The neurotransmitters GABA and glycine tend to have direct-gating receptors, whereas noradrenaline, dopamine and serotonin tend to have indirect-gating receptors. |
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