Recording Electrical Currents across the Plasma Membrane of Mammalian Sperm CellsBoheng Liu 1,2, Nadine Mundt 3,4, Melissa Miller 1, David E. Clapham 5, Yuriy Kirichok 6, Polina V. Lishko 1
1Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 2Department of Neurobiology, Peking University, 3Institute for Biology II / Chemosensation Lab, RWTH Aachen University, 4Research Training Group 2416 MultiSenses-MultiScales, RWTH Aachen University, 5Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, 6Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco
This protocol describes how to perform electrical recordings from mammalian sperm cells in a whole-cell configuration, with the goal of directly recording ion channel activity. The method has been instrumental in describing the electrophysiological profiles of several sperm ion channels and helped to reveal their molecular identity and regulation.