Proton channels are present in reef-building corals and constitute important molecular players that should help understand calcification and the response of these organisms to ocean acidification.

Visualization of the real-time conformational transitions of the human voltage-gated proton channel hHv1 provided novel insights into how voltage and pH gradients modify the dynamic behaviors of channel structures to control proton flow across membrane.

Structural and functional analysis of the OTOP3 channel from Xenopus tropicalis offers insights into the mechanism of ion transport and regulation in the otopetrin proton channel family.

Members of the OTOP family of proton-selective ion channels, which includes the sour receptor OTOP1, are differentially sensitive to activation by zinc, which interacts with residues on tm 5-6 and 11-12 linkers that form part of the channel gating apparatus.

The sour receptor, OTOP1, and related proton channel OTOP3 are steeply activated by extracellular protons while OTOP2 is active over a broad pH range and differences in gating are partly attributed to extracellular domains.

Sodium ions but not protons induce defined helix movements in a sodium/proton antiporter and suggest a mechanism for Na + binding and transport.

Computational models of gating processes in an ion channel show how stability shifts upon ligand-binding and mutations are reproduced, which highlights mechanistic details and proposes a new role for symmetry in gating.

A new mechanism of receptor desensitization is revealed for the novel proton-activated chloride channel, which plays an important role in physiology and disease associated with acidic pH.

Using a combination of all-atom molecular simulation and continuum membrane mechanics, M2 channels from influenza are shown to be stabilized in negative Gaussian curvature regions, such as the neck of budding viral particles, only in C2-symmetric conformations.

Combined patch-clamp fluorometry with ANAP, a fluorescent non-canonical amino acid, uncovers transitions in the activation pathway of human H_V1 that are modulated by voltage and the pH gradient.