A statistical mechanical model of the gating charge of potassium ion voltage-gated channels

This thesis proposes a new statistical mechanical model to describe gating in potassium voltage-gated (Kv) channels in a patch clamp setup. Channels are modeled by "protein structures", which are made of charged "molecular clusters." These clusters can be in one of two states. As the clusters switch states, the physical length of the protein structure is changed. The movement of the charged clusters is hypothesized to produce gating current. The gating charge is assumed to be proportional to the change in average protein structure length. Changes in length are related to the charge at the surface of the channel, which is related to the transmembrane voltage. The model captures the charge-voltage (Q-V) curve of a collection of Shaker Kv channels contained in a cell-attached patch clamp configuration without any fitting, and can describe the shifting of the Q-V curve in response to divalent ions.