Manipulating Shaker potassium channel gating kinetics with temperature steps

Abstract

In this work, we studied the effects of rapid temperature steps on the ionic and gating currents of the Shaker potassium channel. Using the endogenous melanin of Xenopus laevis oocytes as a photothermal transducer and a diode laser (445 nm) with a homogenized beam, we can raise the temperature of the oocyte membrane in few milliseconds (9°C in 1.5 ms). In conjunction with the cut-open voltage-clamp technique, this allowed us to have tight control of both voltage and temperature of the oocyte membrane.