Biophysical Journal 52: 873-883 (1987)
© 1987 the Biophysical Society

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Acetylcholine receptor: channel-opening kinetics evaluated by rapid chemical kinetic and single-channel current measurements.

Section of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853.

ABSTRACT

A combination of rapid chemical kinetic (quench-flow) and single-channel current measurements was used to evaluate kinetic parameters governing the opening of acetylcholine-receptor channels in the electric organ (electroplax) of Electrophorus electricus. Chemical kinetic measurements made on membrane vesicles, prepared from the E. electricus electroplax, using carbamoylcholine (200 microM-20 mM) at 12 degrees C, pH 7.0, and in the absence of a transmembrane voltage, yielded values for K1 (dissociation constant for receptor activation), phi (channel closing equilibrium constant), J (specific reaction rate for ion flux), and alpha max (maximum inactivation rate constant) of 1 mM, 3.4, 4 x 10(7) M-1 s-1, and 12 s-1, respectively. The single-channel current recordings were made with cells also from the E. electricus electroplax, at the same temperature and pH as the chemical kinetic measurements, using carbamoylcholine (50 microM-2 mM), acetylcholine (500 nM), or suberyldicholine (20 nM). Single-channel current measurements indicated the presence of a single, unique open-channel state of the E. electricus receptor, in concurrence with previous, less extensive measurements. The rate constant for channel closing (kc) obtained from the mean open time of the receptor channel is 1,100 s-1 for carbamoylcholine, 1,200 s-1 for acetylcholine, and 360 s-1 for suberyldicholine at zero membrane potential; and it decreases e-fold for an 80 mV decrease in transmembrane voltage in each case. The decrease in mean open times of the receptor channel that is associated with increasing the carbamoylcholine concentration is interpreted to be due to carbamoylcholine binding to the regulatory (inhibitory) site on the receptor. An analysis of data obtained with carbamoylcholine showed that the closed times within a burst of channel activity fit a two-exponential distribution, with a concentration-independent time constant considered to be the time constant for carbamoylcholine to dissociate from the regulatory site, and a carbamoylcholine concentration-dependent, but voltage-independent, time constant interpreted to represent the rate constant for channel opening (k0). An analysis of the mean closed time data on the basis of the minimum model gives values for K1 and k0 of 0.6 mM and 440 s-1, respectively, with carbamoylcholine as the activating ligand. The values obtained for K1, phi (= kc/k0), J, and alpha from the single-channel current measurements using electroplax are in good agreement with the values obtained from the chemical kinetic measurements using receptor-rich vesicles prepared from the same cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)