Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular BiologyType: Couldn't replicate a published resultArea: neuronal ion channelsTarget: Cav1.2 L-type calcium channel α1 subunitStage: preclinical
Hypothesis
The main pore-forming part of the Cav1.2 calcium channel is cut in the middle, between its second and third domains, as Michailidis et al. (2014) reported.
What failed
Systematic immunoblots of brain tissue and cells with six region-specific antibodies found a full-length form (about 250 kDa) and a shorter form missing about 350 residues at the C-terminal end. Cutting in the middle of the channel was at most minimal in brain tissue.
Broken assumption
The Cav1.2 channel protein in neurons is commonly cut into two halves.
Why
The shorter form comes from losing the end of the protein, not from a cut in the middle.
From the published paper: Buonarati et al. F1000Research, 2017. ↗CC BY