Enables monoatomic cation channel activity. Involved in several processes, including monoatomic cation homeostasis; positive regulation of locomotion; and response to anesthetic. Located in axon. Part of cation channel complex. Is expressed in excretory canal; hermaphrodite distal tip cell; nervous system; and non-striated muscle. Orthologous to human UNC80 (unc-80 homolog, NALCN channel complex subunit).
WB Description
unc-80 encodes a novel protein, conserved amongst C. elegans, Drosophila, and vertebrates; unc-79 functions in a pathway with unc-77 and nca-2, which encode alpha-1 subunits of voltage-insensitive cation leak channels, to regulate presynaptic activation and thus, locomotion and the response to specific volatile anesthetics; co-expression of UNC-77 and UNC-80 in HEK293T cells results in increased UNC-77 channel activity, in a manner consistent with UNC-77 and UNC-80 functioning as an ion leak channel; an unc-80::gfp reporter fusion is expressed in many sensory and all motoneurons; in the nerve ring and in dorsal and ventral nerve cords, UNC-80 localizes to specific axonal regions, but not to synapses; UNC-80, UNC-77, and UNC-79, an additional novel protein believed to act in the same pathway, reciprocally regulate their expression levels in neurons.