Ion Transport Mechanism in ClC-Type Channel Protein under Complex Electrostatic Potential

In order to illustrate the ion transport mechanism of chloride channel(Cl C) protein,a type of Cl C protein,Cl C-ec1,from Escherichia coli is embedded into an explicit membranewater system by using software VMD. Then a parallel molecular dynamics(MD) simulation is employed to equilibrate the Cl C-ec1 structure for 27.5 ns at temperature 298.15 K. Based on this equilibrated structure,we compute the channel geometric size variation and electrostatic potential distribution along the channel. Meanwhile,Cl-transport process is simulated using oriented random walk method under variable external potential. The simulation result shows that Cl-transport velocity depends on the width of the narrowest channel region. Mutation of negative glutamate E148 can produce positive potential,which is beneficial for Cl-transport,around external Cl-binding region in the channel. The simulated current-voltage curves about Cl-transporting in Cl C-ec1 protein agree with Jayaram’s experimental results.