Reconstitution of Brain Microsomal Calcium Channels and Olfactory Epithelium Cilia in Planar Bilayer Lipid Membrane Systems

Membrane Biophysics Laboratory (Giltner Hall), Department of Physiology, Michigan State University,
East Lansing, Michigan 48823, U.S.A.

Two types of reconstitution experiments are described. One involves the study of single Ca²⁺ channels from rat brain microsomal membrane reconstituted at the tip of a patch clamp micropipette. The single channel conductance is found to be 80 and 125 ps in 50 mM ca²⁺ . The open-time distribution follows a single exponential with a time constant(т) of 7.34 ms. Further characterisation of this channel is in progress. We hypothesise this channel to be the same as that which is present in muscle  sarcoplasmic reticulum. Also described are some of our methods to Incorporate the olfactory epithelium cilia in planar bilayer systems so as to understand the 'odor to generator potential development' transduction
process.