Luchinsky, D. G. and Gibby, W. A.T. and Kaufman, I. Kh and McClintock, P. V.E. and Timucin, D. A. (2017) Relation between selectivity and conductivity in narrow ion channels. In: 2017 International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations, ICNF 2017 :. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., LTU. ISBN 9781509027613
Luchinsky_Relation_between_selectivity_and_conductivity_icnf2017old.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial.
Download (961kB)
Abstract
To establish the general statistical mechanical properties of highly conductive but selective nano-filters we develop an equilibrium statistical-mechanical theory of the KcsA filter, find the probabilities for the filter to bind ions from the mixed intra- and extra-cellular solutions, and evaluate the conductivity of the filter in its linear response regime. The results provide first principles analytical resolution of the long-standing paradox - how can narrow filter conduct potassium ions at nearly the rate of free diffusion while strongly selecting them over sodium ions - and are applicable to a wide range of biological and artificial channels.