Structural and mechanistic insights into symmetry conversion in plant GORK K+ channel regulation

GORK is a shaker-like potassium channel in plants that contains ankyrin (ANK) repeats. In guard cells, activation of GORK causes K+ efflux, reducing turgor pressure and closing stomata. However, how GORK is regulated remains largely elusive. Here, we solved the cryo-EM structure of Arabidopsis GORK, revealing an unusual symmetry reduction (from C4 to C2) feature within its tetrameric assembly. This symmetry reduction in GORK channel is driven by ANK dimerization, which disrupts the coupling between transmembrane helices and cytoplasmic domains, thus maintaining GORK in an autoinhibited state. Electrophysiological and structural analyses further confirmed that ANK dimerization inhibits GORK, and its removal restores C4 symmetry, converting GORK to an activatable state. This dynamic switching between C2 and C4 symmetry, mediated by ANK dimerization, presents a GORK target site that guard cells regulate to switch the plant K+ channel between inhibited and activatable states, thus controlling stomatal movement in response to environmental stimuli.

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Publication Details

Journal
Protein & Cell
Published
2025-08-03
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/procel/pwaf067
Primary Topic
Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Structural and mechanistic insights into symmetry conversion in plant GORK K+ channel regulation

Shouguang Huang, G. Zhang, Ning-jie Hao, Qian Xiao et al.
Protein & Cell
Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance
article

Structural and mechanistic insights into symmetry conversion in plant GORK K+ channel regulation

Shouguang Huang, G. Zhang, Ning-jie Hao, Qian Xiao, Chunrui Zhang, Qi-yu Li, Min Su, Tongxin Niu, Linghui Tang, Qin Li, Yuhang Chen, Ke Wang, Rainer Hedrich
article en

Abstract

GORK is a shaker-like potassium channel in plants that contains ankyrin (ANK) repeats. In guard cells, activation of GORK causes K+ efflux, reducing turgor pressure and closing stomata. However, how GORK is regulated remains largely elusive. Here, we solved the cryo-EM structure of Arabidopsis GORK, revealing an unusual symmetry reduction (from C4 to C2) feature within its tetrameric assembly. This symmetry reduction in GORK channel is driven by ANK dimerization, which disrupts the coupling between transmembrane helices and cytoplasmic domains, thus maintaining GORK in an autoinhibited state. Electrophysiological and structural analyses further confirmed that ANK dimerization inhibits GORK, and its removal restores C4 symmetry, converting GORK to an activatable state. This dynamic switching between C2 and C4 symmetry, mediated by ANK dimerization, presents a GORK target site that guard cells regulate to switch the plant K+ channel between inhibited and activatable states, thus controlling stomatal movement in response to environmental stimuli.

Protein & CellVol. 16(12)
University of Würzburg (DE), Institute of Biophysics (CN), Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Genetics
Openalex Percentile: Top 81%
Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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