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Free keywords:
Electric Organ; Partial Reaction; Adenosine Triphosphatase; Pump Current; Black Lipid Membrane
Abstract:
The generally accepted reaction scheme of the Na+/K+-ATPase is the Albers-Post cycle. It defines the reaction mechanism of the enzyme by a sequence of intermediates which are characterized by their chemical or structural properties, namely, conformation and state of phosphorylation. While much information has been accumulated about the reaction mechanism, much less is known about the transport mechanism of the Na+/K+-ATPase. An obvious strategy to address the latter problem is to correlate charge movement to the partial reactions in the Albers-Post scheme. The underlying assumption in this approach is that the charge movement reflects the movement of the transported Na+or K+ ions inside the protein.
