The temperature dependence of the BK channel activity – kinetics, thermodynamics, and long-range correlations

Large-conductance, voltage dependent, Ca^2 +-activated potassium channels (BK) are transmembrane proteins that regulate many biological processes by controlling potassium flow across cell membranes. Here, we investigate to what extent temperature (in the range of 17–37 °C with ΔT = 5 °C step) is a regulating parameter of kinetic properties of the channel gating and memory effect in the series of dwell-time series of subsequent channel's states, at membrane depolarization and hyperpolarization. The obtained results indicate that temperature affects strongly the BK channels’ gating, but, counterintuitively, it exerts no effect on the long-range correlations, as measured by the Hurst coefficient. Quantitative differences between dependencies of appropriate channel's characteristics on temperature are evident for different regimes of voltage. Examining the characteristics of BK channel activity as a function of temperature allows to estimate the net activation energy (E_act) and changes of thermodynamic parameters (ΔH, ΔS, ΔG) by channel opening. Larger E_act corresponds to the channel activity at membrane hyperpolarization. The analysis of entropy and enthalpy changes of closed to open channel's transition suggest the entropy-driven nature of the increase of open state probability during voltage activation and supports the hypothesis about the voltage-dependent geometry of the channel vestibule.