Species Human Entrez 3761 | Human Mouse Ensembl ENSG00000168135 | |
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Aliases KCNJ4, HIR, HIRK2, HRK1, IRK-3, IRK3, Kir2.3, potassium voltage-gated channel subfamily J member 4 External IDs MGI: 104743 HomoloGene: 3653 GeneCards: KCNJ4 | ||
Potassium inwardly-rectifying channel, subfamily J, member 4, also known as KCNJ4 or Kir2.3, is a human gene.
Contents
Function
Several different potassium channels are known to be involved with electrical signaling in the nervous system. One class is activated by depolarization whereas a second class is not. The latter are referred to as inwardly rectifying K+ channels, and they have a greater tendency to allow potassium to flow into the cell rather than out of it. This asymmetry in potassium ion conductance plays a key role in the excitability of muscle cells and neurons. The protein encoded by this gene is an integral membrane protein and member of the inward rectifier potassium channel family. The encoded protein has a small unitary conductance compared to other members of this protein family. Two transcript variants encoding the same protein have been found for this gene.
Interactions
KCNJ4 has been shown to interact with: