Either way (regulation by ligands or self-organization), subunit assembly and intersubunit interactions (mediated or not by ligands) must play an important role. Subunit assembly was characterized by monitoring the distances between the groups of residues involved in the binding pockets in the principal and complementary subunits in the plane orthogonal to the channel direction. Although with caution due to relatively small differences and calculation uncertainties, we observed a combination of pulling and pushing effects induced by ligands (and to some extent self-organization) in "zipping" together the subunits. We further examined inter-subunit interactions, through hydrogen bond analysis and contact maps. In particular we focussed on how structure covalently linked, like Loop F and Loop B within one subunit, participate to two adjacent binding sites and may mediate the push-pull action. The comparison between the two-ligand models (with consecutive and non-consecutive pocket occupancies) revealed that the two bound pockets remained stable regardless of their arrangement. In contrast, the three consecutive empty pockets exhibited an alternation enlargement (for the size ones) and contraction (for the central one), likely due to a self-organization tendency of the subunits.