In vivo analysis of voltage-dependent calcium channels.

The molecular cloning of calcium channel subunits has identified an unexpectedly large number of genes and splicing variants, many of whichhave complex expression patterns: a central problem of calcium channel biology is to understand the functional significance of this genetic complexity. The genetic analysis of voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCCs) provides an approach to defining channel function that is complimentary to pharmacological, electrophysiological, and other molecular methods. By discovering or creating alleles of VDCC genes, one can gain an understanding of the VDCC function at the whole animal level. Of particular interest are mutations in the alpha1 genes that encode the pore forming subunits, as they define the specific channel subtypes. In fact, a variety of calcium channelopathies and targeted mutations have been described for these genes in the last 6 years. The mutant alleles described below illustrate how phenotype analysis of these alleles has uncovered very specific functional roles that can be localized to specific synapses or cells.