2014 - Temperature-sensitive gating of hCx26: high-resolution Raman spectroscopy sheds light on conformational changes
Port-a-Patch and 
Vesicle Prep Pro publication in Biomedical Optics Express (2014)
Authors:
Kniggendorf A.-K., Meinhardt-Wollweber M., Yuan X., Roth B., Seifert A., Fertig N., Zeilinger C.
Journal:
Biomedical Optics Express (2014) 5(7):2054
Abstract:
The temperature-sensitive gating of human Connexin 26 (hCx26) was analyzed with confocal Raman microscopy. High-resolution Raman spectra covering the spectral range between 400 and 1500 rel. cm−1 with a spectral resolution of 1 cm−1 were fully annotated, revealing notable differences between the spectrum recorded from solubilized hCx26 in Ca2+-buffered POPC at 10°C and any other set of protein conditions (temperature, Ca2+ presence, POPC presence). Spectral components originating from specific amino acids show that the TM1/EL1 parahelix and probably the TM4 trans-membrane helix and the plug domain are involved in the gating process responsible for fully closing the hemichannel.