Biophysical Society Conference | Tahoe 2023

Proton Reactions: From Basic Science to Biomedical Applications

Monday Speaker Abstracts

MECHANISM OF PH SENSING IN THE HUMAN VOLTAGE-GATED PROTON CHANNEL HV1 Jana Shen 1 ; Yandong Huang 2 ; 1 University of Maryland, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Baltimore, MD, USA 2 Jimei University, Computer Science, Xiamen, China Hv1 is an important model system for understanding voltage-gated proton channels. It has been studied for nearly four decades; however, the mechanism of gating and proton selectivity remains poorly understood. I will discuss our recent findings from the continuous constant pH molecular dynamics simulations based on the hyperpolarized and depolarized structural models of human Hv1. The analysis of conformational dynamics coupled to proton titration offers an explanation of the existing experimental data (e.g., threshold voltage shifts due to the neutralizing mutations), and more importantly, it leads to a hypothesis regarding the pH sensing residues.

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