Pumps, Channels and Transporters

Describes experimental methods for investigating the function of pumps, channels and transporters

Ion-transporting membrane proteins, which include ion pumps, channels, and transporters, play crucial roles in all cellular life forms. Not only do they provide pathways linking the extracellular medium with the cytoplasm and the cytoplasm with the contents of intracellular organelles, they are also intimately involved in energy transduction in all cells.

Pumps, Channels and Transporters: Methods of Functional Analysis covers the analytical techniques used for studying the function of ion transporting membrane proteins. The emphasis of this book is, therefore, on experimental methods for resolving the kinetics and dynamics of pumps, channels, and transporters. Structural methods, such as x-ray crystallography or electronmicroscopy, although clearly important for a complete understanding of membrane protein function down to the atomic level, are specifically excluded.

The experimental methods treated in the book are divided into three main groups: electrical (Chapters 2-6), spectroscopic (Chapters 7-12), and radioactivity-based and atomic absorption-based flux assays (Chapters 13 and 14). Finally, the book concludes with a chapter on computational techniques (Chapter 15).

Pumps, Channels and Transporters features:

• A wide range of electrophysiological techniques and spectroscopic methods used to analyze the function of ion channels, ion pumps and transporters
• New and emerging analytical methods used to study ion transport membrane proteins such as single-molecule spectroscopy
• State-of-the art analytical methods to study ion pumps, channels and transporters

Readers interested in the dynamic aspects of membrane protein function should find the book interesting and of value for their own research.

Ronald J. Clarke, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, Australia. In 2010 he was awarded the McAulay-Hope Prize for Original Biophysics by the Australian Society for Biophysics.

Mohammed A. A. Khalid, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, College of Applied Medical and Sciences at Taif University, Turabah, Saudi Arabia.