Allosteric voltage gating of potassium channels II -: mSlo channel gating charge movement in the absence of Ca2+

Large-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channels can be activated by membrane voltage in the absence of Ca2+ binding, indicating that these channels contain an intrinsic voltage sensor. The properties of this voltage sensor and its relationship to channel activation were examined by studying gating charge movement from mSlo Ca2+-activated K+ channels in the virtual absence of Ca2+ (<1 nM). Charge movement was measured in response to voltage steps or sinusoidal voltage commands. The charge-voltage relationship (Q-V) is shallower and shifted to more negative voltages than the voltage-dependent open probability (G-V). Both ON and OFF gating currents evoked by brief (0.5-ms) voltage pulses appear to decay rapidly (tau(ON) = 60 mu s at +200 mV, tau(OFF) = 16 mu s at -80 mV). However, Q(OFF) increases slowly with pulse duration, indicating that a large fraction of ON charge develops with a time course comparable to that of I,activation. The slow onset of this gating charge prevents its detection as a component of I-gON, although it represents similar to 40% of the total charge moved at +140 mV. The decay of I-gOFF is slowed after depolarizations that open mSlo channels. Yet, the majority of open channel charge relaxation is too rapid to be limited by channel closing. These results can be understood in terms of the allosteric voltage-gating scheme developed in the preceding paper (Horrigan, F.T., J. Cui, and R.W. Aldrich. 1999. J. Gen. Physiol. 114:277-304). The model contains five open (O) and five closed (C) states arranged in parallel, and the kinetic and steady-state properties of mSlo gating currents exhibit multiple components associated with C-C, O-O, and C-O transitions.