Papers of the Week

The transient receptor potential vanilloid-superfamily member 3 (TRPV3) channel is implicated in a variety of physiological processes, including temperature sensing, nociception and itch, maintenance of the skin barrier, wound healing, hair growth, and embryonic development. TRPV3 is also associated with various skin diseases, including Olmsted syndrome, atopic dermatitis, and rosacea. Studies of TRPV3 are of fundamental importance for structural pharmacology aimed at the design of drugs targeting this channel and for understanding the molecular basis of temperature sensing. Here we describe a detailed protocol for expression and purification of chemically pure and stable TRPV3 protein that is suitable for structural and functional characterization of this channel, in particular for cryo-EM sample preparation and high-resolution 3D reconstruction.