Main description:

Since the pioneering discoveries of Hodgkin, Huxley, and Katz, it has been clear that specific ion conductance pathways underlie electrical act- ity. Over the ensuing 50 years, there has been ever increasing, and occasi- ally explosive, changes in the scope of efforts to understand ion channel behavior. The introduction of patch clamp technology by Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann about 20 years ago led to the realization of the great variety of novel ion channel species, and the subsequent revolution in cl- ing has revealed an even greater diversity of the underlying molecular entities. Today, advances in the study of ion channel structure and function c- tinue at a high pace, from angstrom resolution imaging of crystallized ch- nels to their genetic manipulations in animals. In this regard, the field is a balanced one that inquires not only what ion channel entities are there, or how they operate, but also where are these molecular electronic switches? However, this balance is not particularly well presented to the general sci- tific audience or to specialists in the field. There are plenty of wonderful and useful books and monographs, as well as conferences and meetings on v- tually every aspect of ion channel structure and function. However, we are unaware that the channel localization theme has been considered in a u- fied forum.

Contents:

Part I. Pharmacological Labeling of Ion Channels and Receptors

Fluorescent Calcium Antagonists: Tools for Imaging of L-Type Calcium Channels in Living Cells
Thomas Budde

Targeting Cerebral Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptors with Radioligands for Diagnostic Nuclear Medicine Studies
Daniel W. McPherson

GABAA Receptors: Autoradiographic Localization of Different Ligand Sites and Identification of Subtypes of the Benzodiazepine Binding Site
Cyrille Sur and John Atack

Localization of ATP P2X Receptors
Xuenong Bo and Geoffrey Burnstock

Small Conductance Calcium-Activated Potassium Channels in Rat Brain: Autoradiographic Localization Using Two Specific Toxins, Apamin and Scyllatoxin
Marc Borsotto

Mapping N-Type Calcium Channel Distributions with _-Conotoxins
Geula M. Bernstein and Owen T. Jones

Fluorescent Imaging of Nicotinic Receptors During Neuromuscular Junction Development
Zhengshan Dai and H. Benjamin Peng

High Affinity Scorpion Toxins for Studying Potassium and Sodium Channels
Lourival D. Possani, Baltazar Becerril, Jan Tytgat, and Muriel Delepierre

Part II. Applications of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) Technology

Bicistronic GFP Expression Vectors as a Tool to Study Ion Channels in Transiently Transfected Cultured Cells
Jan Eggermont, Dominique Trouet, Gunnar Buyse, Rudi Vennekens, Guy Droogmans, and Bernd Nilius

Confocal Imaging of GFP-Labeled Ion Channels
Bryan D. Moyer and Bruce A. Stanton

Localization and Quantification of GFP-Tagged Ion Channels Expressed in Xenopus Oocytes
Tooraj Mirshahi, Diomedes E. Logothetis, and Massimo Sassaroli

Applications of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) Technology: Watching Ion Channel Biogenesis in Living Cells Using GFP Fusion Constructs
Scott A. John and James N. Weiss

Tagging Ion Channels with the Green FluorescentProtein (GFP) as a Method for Studying Ion Channel Function in Transgenic Mouse Models
Joseph C. Koster and Colin G. Nichols

Mutant GFP-Based FRET Analysis of K+ Channel Organization
Elena N. Makhina and Colin G. Nichols

Delivering Ion Channels to Mammalian Cells by Membrane Fusion
David C. Johns, Uta C. Hoppe, Eduardo Marban, and Brian O'Rourke

Part III. Functional Assays in Ion Channel Localization

Detection of Neurons Expressing Calcium-Permeable AMPA Receptors Using Kainate-Induced Cobalt Uptake
Cristovao Albuquerque, Holly S. Engelman, C. Justin Lee, and Amy B. MacDermott

Crystallization Technique for Localizing Ion Channels in Living Cells
Anatoli N. Lopatin, Elena N. Makhina and Colin G. Nichols

Imaging of Localized Neuronal Calcium Influx
Fritjof Helmchen

Using Caged Compounds to Map Functional Neurotransmitter Receptors
Diana L. Pettit and George J. Augustine

Part IV. Atomic Force Microscopy

Atomic Force Microscopy of Reconstituted Ion Channels
Hoeon Kim, Hai Lin, and Ratneshwar Lal

Imaging the Spatial Organization of Calcium Channels in Nerve Terminals Using Atomic Force Microscopy
Hajime Takano, Marc Porter, and Philip G. Haydon

Nanoarchitecture of Plasma Membrane Visualized with Atomic Force Microscopy
Hans Oberleithner, Hermann Schillers, Stefan W. Schneider, and Robert M. Henderson

Dynamic AFM of Patch Clamped Membranes
Kenneth Snyder, Ping C. Zhang, and Frederick Sachs

Localizing Ion Channels with Scanning Probe Microscopes: A Perspective
Daniel M. Czajkowsky and Zhifeng Shao