This Week in The Journal

Abstract

decreased the time constants of the two longest open states, and reduced the efficacy of transitions between the final closed state and the initial open state. These results demonstrate that auxiliary subunits can affect single-channel properties of GABA A Rs. Specifically, Shisa7 alters the kinetics of GABA A R channel gating during bursts. This effect explains the accelerated deactivation kinetics of GABA A Rs measured in previous whole-cell recordings. Together with previous work showing Shisa7 pro-motes surface expression of GABA A Rs, this study suggests that Shisa7 shapes inhibitory input to neurons by making whole-cell GABA currents larger in amplitude, but shorter in duration. This might be impor-tant for regulating spike timing.