Ryanodine receptor 1 and its potential gating mechanism: Recent progress / 第二军医大学学报

ABSTRACT

The ryanodine receptors (RyRs) are intracellular Ca2+ releasing channels on the sarcoplasmic reticulum membrane and play a pivotal role in theexcitation-contraction coupling of skeletal and cardiac muscles as well as other physiological processes. With the recent development of CryoEM and the improvement of data analysis technique, scientists from China, the United States and Germany have acquired high-quality RyR1 images at the total resolutions of 3. 8 Å (1 Å = 10-10 m), 4. 8 Å and 6. 1 Å, respectively, which have been published in the same issue of Nature in 2015. RyRls are homotetrameric complexes with a molecular mass of more than 2 200 000, mainly containing a cytoplasmic region composed of NTD, SPRY, P1, P2, B-sol and C-sol domains and a channel region composed of S1-S6, VSL and CTD domains. As the most common factor affecting the condition of RyRl, Ca2+ is able to bind the EF-hand subdomain in the cytoplasmic region, which further causes the conformational change and finally leads to the channel opening.