Fig. 6: Model III introduces inter-subunit coupling during desensitization.
From: The desensitization pathway of GABAA receptors, one subunit at a time
a For the wild-type receptors, Model III builds upon Model II by adding some coupling between adjacent subunits during desensitization. On the one hand, desensitization of SU3 accelerates the desensitization of SU4 by a factor γ, and reciprocally. On the other hand, desensitization of SU4 slows the recovery of SU5 by a factor ε, and reciprocally. b For mutated concatemers, Model III incorporates the additional hypothesis that the mutation of SU3 also affects the desensitization of SU4 by increasing both its desensitization and recovery rates, by ratios c34+ and c34−, respectively.
