Cloning of a human ether-a-go-go potassium channel expressed in myoblasts at the onset of fusion

• Published in: FEBS letters Vol. 434; no. 1; pp. 177 - 182
• Main Authors: Occhiodoro, Teresa, Bernheim, Laurent, Liu, Jian-Hui, Bijlenga, Philippe, Sinnreich, Michael, Bader, Charles R, Fischer-Lougheed, Jacqueline
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier B.V 28.08.1998
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Amino Acid Sequence; Brain - metabolism; Cell Differentiation; Cells, Cultured; Child; Child, Preschool; Cloning, Molecular; Ether-A-Go-Go Potassium Channels; Human EAG; Humans; Infant; Molecular Sequence Data; Muscle, Skeletal - cytology; Muscle, Skeletal - metabolism; Myoblast fusion; Potassium channel; Potassium Channels - biosynthesis; Potassium Channels - genetics; Sequence Alignment; Sequence Analysis; Myoblast fusion; Potassium channel; Human EAG
• ISSN: 0014-5793; 1873-3468
• DOI: 10.1016/S0014-5793(98)00973-9

An early sign of human myoblast commitment to fusion is the expression of a non-inactivating delayed rectifier K + current, I K(NI), and an associated membrane potential hyperpolarization. We have isolated the full-length coding region of a human ether-a-go-go K + channel (h- eag) from myoblasts undergoing differentiation. The h- eag gene was localized to chromosome 1q32–41, and is expressed as a ∼9 kb transcript in myogenic cells and in adult brain tissue. Forced expression of h- eag in undifferentiated myoblasts generates a current with remarkable similarity to I K(NI) indicating that h- eag constitutes the channel responsible for this current in vivo.