An overview of the potassium channel family

Potassium channels, tetrameric integral membrane proteins that form aqueous pores through which K(+) can flow, are found in virtually all organisms; the genomes of humans, Drosophila, and Caenorhabditis elegans contain 30-100 K(+) channel genes each. The structure of a bacterial K(+) channel, sequence comparisons with other channels and electrophysiological measurements have enabled conclusions about the mechanism of gating and ion flow to be drawn for many other channels.