Your humble servant forgot to mention...

Fig 1. Spider venom activating chick ASIC1, which responds by absolutely refusing to conduct Ca2+...that he was in Nature last year. Here's the article. Yep, impressive, eh? Certainly, reader you can buy me a pint next time we meet. Make mine a Ringwood 49er.Wait, what's that you say, hmm?Oh, no, no, dear reader, I'm not to be found among the authors, no.  You've got to scroll down a wee bit...That's right, keep going...Bit further...Down, down, down...That's it, past the references...and...THERE!You see! A ha! What do you make of that, then?"We appreciate assistance in the initial characterization of the action of PcTx1 on chicken ASIC1a by D. Samways and T. Egan"(my bold, italics, underlining and color)You scoff, reader, but this is about as "in Nature" as I'm ever likely to get, so humor moi.The authors of this paper are, of course,  referring to our own landmark paper in which my colleagues and I briefly outlined the staggering and unimpeachable evidence in support of the shocking and field-redefining revelation that the Acid-Sensing Ion Channel 1 is not all that keen on conducting Ca2+(Fig. 1). It'll let a respectable Na+ into a cell any day, and it might let out the odd K+ if it shines its shoes and wears the right tie, but Ca2+? This ion channel would sooner not encourage the divalent riff-raff of the alkaline metals if it's all the same to you, madam (it'll only go in and tear up the place anyway, activating this, deactivating that... &c)....
Source: Across the Bilayer - Category: Medical Scientists Tags: IonChannels Science Source Type: blogs