KCNKØ was the first clone to show attributes of a leak conductance: voltage-independent potassium currents that develop without delay. Its novel product is predicted to have two nonidentical P domains and four transmembrane segments and to assemble in pairs. Here, the mechanistic basis for leak is examined at the single-channel level. KCNKØ channels open at all voltages in bursts that last for minutes with open probability close to 1. The channels also enter a minutes-long closed state in a tightly regulated fashion. KCNKØ has a common relative permeability series (Eisenman type IV) but conducts only thallium and potassium readily. KCNKØ exhibits concentration-dependent unitary conductance, anomalous mole fraction behavior, and pore occlusion by barium. These observations argue for ion-channel and ion-ion interactions in a multi-ion pore and deny the operation of independence or constant-field current formulations. Despite their unique function and structure, leakage channels are observed to operate like classical potassium channels formed with one-P-domain subunits.

Essential to nerve and muscle function, little is known about how potassium leak channels operate. KCNKØ opens and closes in a kinase-dependent fashion. Here, the transition is shown to correspond to changes in the outer aspect of the ion conduction pore. Voltage-gated potassium (VGK) channels open and close via an internal gate; however, they also have an outer pore gate that produces "C-type" inactivation. While KCNKØ does not inactivate, KCNKØ and VGK channels respond in like manner to outer pore blockers, potassium, mutations, and chemical modifiers. Structural relatedness is confirmed: VGK residues that come close during C-type gating predict KCNKØ sites that crosslink (after mutation to cysteine) to yield channels controlled by reduction and oxidization. We conclude that similar outer pore gates mediate KCNKØ opening and closing and VGK channel C-type inactivation despite their divergent structures and physiological roles.

Potassium-selective leak channels control neuromuscular function through effects on membrane excitability. Nonetheless, their existence as independent molecular entities was established only recently with the cloning of KCNKO from Drosophila melanogaster. Here, the operating mechanism of these 2 P domain leak channels is delineated. Single KCNKO channels switch between two long-lived states (one open and one closed) in a tenaciously regulated fashion. Activation can increase the open probability to approximately 1, and inhibition can reduce it to approximately 0.05. Gating is dictated by a 700-residue carboxy-terminal tail that controls the closed state dwell time but does not form a channel gate; its deletion (to produce a 300-residue subunit with two P domains and four transmembrane segments) yields unregulated leak channels that enter, but do not maintain, the closed state. The tail integrates simultaneous input from multiple regulatory pathways acting via protein kinases C, A, and G.

A new superfamily of K+ channels has emerged in the past 2 years. Notable for possessing two pore-forming P domains in each subunit, members of the superfamily have been recognized through phylogeny from micro-organisms to humans. Four subfamilies of two P domain channels have been isolated thus far; among these are the first cloned examples of outward rectifier and open rectifier (or leak) K+ channels. The two P domain K+ channels offer a new perspective from which to glimpse the molecular basis for function and dysfunction of K+-selective ion channels.

Killer strains of S. cerevisiae harbor double-stranded RNA viruses and secrete protein toxins that kill virus-free cells. The K1 killer toxin acts on sensitive yeast cells to perturb potassium homeostasis and cause cell death. Here, the toxin is shown to activate the plasma membrane potassium channel of S. cerevisiae, TOK1. Genetic deletion of TOK1 confers toxin resistance; overexpression increases susceptibility. Cells expressing TOK1 exhibit toxin-induced potassium flux; those without the gene do not. K1 toxin acts in the absence of other viral or yeast products: toxin synthesized from a cDNA increases open probability of single TOK1 channels (via reversible destabilization of closed states) whether channels are studied in yeast cells or X. laevis oocytes.