The mitochondrial calcium uniporter is a highly selective ion channel

Yuriy Kirichok, Grigory Krapivinsky and David E. Clapham ()
Additional contact information
Yuriy Kirichok: Harvard Medical School
Grigory Krapivinsky: Harvard Medical School
David E. Clapham: Harvard Medical School

Nature, 2004, vol. 427, issue 6972, 360-364

Abstract: Abstract During intracellular Ca2+ signalling mitochondria accumulate significant amounts of Ca2+ from the cytosol1,2. Mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake controls the rate of energy production1,3,4, shapes the amplitude and spatio-temporal patterns of intracellular Ca2+ signals1,5,6,7,8, and is instrumental to cell death9,10. This Ca2+ uptake is undertaken by the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU) located in the organelle's inner membrane11,12. The uniporter passes Ca2+ down the electrochemical gradient maintained across this membrane without direct coupling to ATP hydrolysis or transport of other ions11. Carriers are characterized by turnover numbers that are typically 1,000-fold lower than ion channels, and until now it has been unclear whether the MCU is a carrier or a channel13. By patch-clamping the inner mitochondrial membrane, we identified a previously unknown Ca2+-selective ion channel sensitive to inhibitors of mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake. Our data indicate that this unique channel binds Ca2+ with extremely high affinity (dissociation constant ≤2 nM), enabling high Ca2+ selectivity despite relatively low cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentrations. The channel is inwardly rectifying, making it especially effective for Ca2+ uptake into energized mitochondria. Thus, we conclude that the properties of the current mediated by this novel channel are those of the MCU.

Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02246 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:427:y:2004:i:6972:d:10.1038_nature02246

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature02246

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().