KCNJ3

Potassium channels are present in most mammalian cells, where they participate in a wide range of physiologic responses. The protein encoded by this gene is an integral membrane protein and inward-rectifier type potassium channel. The encoded protein, which has a greater tendency to allow potassium to flow into a cell rather than out of a cell, is controlled by G-proteins and plays an important role in regulating heartbeat. It associates with three other G-protein-activated potassium channels to form a heteromultimeric pore-forming complex that also couples to neurotransmitter receptors in the brain and whereby channel activation can inhibit action potential firing by hyperpolarizing the plasma membrane. These multimeric G-protein-gated inwardly-rectifying potassium (GIRK) channels may play a role in the pathophysiology of epilepsy, addiction, Down's syndrome, ataxia, and Parkinson's disease. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding distinct proteins. [provided by RefSeq, May 2012]

Description

potassium inwardly-rectifying channel, subfamily J, member 3

Protein family

Membrane proteins predicted by MDM, Voltage-gated ion channels

Chromosome

2:q24.1 (155554811 - 155714863)

Ensembl ID

ENSG00000162989  (ver. 69.37)

Orthologs

Mouse Kcnj3: ENSMUSG00000026824

Human splice variants
Mouse splice variants