Abstract

Identification of the minimum number of ways in which open and closed states communicate is a crucial step in defining the gating kinetics of multistate channels. We used certain correlation functions to extract information about the pathways connecting the open and closed states of the cation channel of the purified nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and of the chloride channel of Torpedo californica electroplax membranes. Single channel currents were recorded from planar lipid bilayers containing the membrane channel proteins under investigation. The correlation functions are conveniently computed from single channel current records and yield information on E, the minimum number of entry/exit states into the open or closed aggregates. E gives a lower limit on the numbers of transition pathways between open and closed states. For the acetylcholine receptor, the autocorrelation analysis shows that there are at least two entry/exit states through which the open and closed aggregates communicate. The chloride channel fluctuates between three conductance substates, here indentified as C, M, and H for closed, intermediate, and high conductance, respectively. Correlation analysis shows that E is greater than or equal to 2 for the M aggregate, indicating that there are at least two distinct entry/exit states in the M aggregate. In contrast, there is no evidence for the existence of more than one entry/exit state in the C or H aggregates. Thus, these correlation functions provide a simple and general strategy to extract information on channel gating kinetics.