Related Research Articles
In cellular biology, active transport is the movement of molecules or ions across a cell membrane from a region of lower concentration to a region of higher concentration—against the concentration gradient. Active transport requires cellular energy to achieve this movement. There are two types of active transport: primary active transport that uses adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and secondary active transport that uses an electrochemical gradient. This process is in contrast to passive transport, which allows molecules or ions to move down their concentration gradient, from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration, without energy.
A transmembrane protein is a type of integral membrane protein that spans the entirety of the cell membrane. Many transmembrane proteins function as gateways to permit the transport of specific substances across the membrane. They frequently undergo significant conformational changes to move a substance through the membrane. They are usually highly hydrophobic and aggregate and precipitate in water. They require detergents or nonpolar solvents for extraction, although some of them (beta-barrels) can be also extracted using denaturing agents.
A membrane transport protein is a membrane protein involved in the movement of ions, small molecules, and macromolecules, such as another protein, across a biological membrane. Transport proteins are integral transmembrane proteins; that is they exist permanently within and span the membrane across which they transport substances. The proteins may assist in the movement of substances by facilitated diffusion, active transport, osmosis, or reverse diffusion. The two main types of proteins involved in such transport are broadly categorized as either channels or carriers. Examples of channel/carrier proteins include the GLUT 1 uniporter, sodium channels, and potassium channels. The solute carriers and atypical SLCs are secondary active or facilitative transporters in humans. Collectively membrane transporters and channels are known as the transportome. Transportomes govern cellular influx and efflux of not only ions and nutrients but drugs as well.
A nanopore is a pore of nanometer size. It may, for example, be created by a pore-forming protein or as a hole in synthetic materials such as silicon or graphene.
An antiporter is an integral membrane protein involved in secondary active transport. It is a type of cotransporter, which means that uses the movement of one In the case of an antiporter, two or more different molecules or ions are moved across a phospholipid membrane, such as the plasma membrane, in opposite directions, one into the cell and one out of the cell. This is in contrast to symporters, which are another type of cotransporter that moves two or more ions in the same direction.
Cotransporters are a subcategory of membrane transport proteins (transporters) that couple the favorable movement of one molecule with its concentration gradient and unfavorable movement of another molecule against its concentration gradient. They enable coupled or cotransport and include antiporters and symporters. In general, cotransporters consist of two out of the three classes of integral membrane proteins known as transporters that move molecules and ions across biomembranes. Uniporters are also transporters but move only one type of molecule down its concentration gradient and are not classified as cotransporters.
In biology, a transporter is a transmembrane protein that moves ions across a biological membrane to accomplish many different biological functions, including cellular communication, maintaining homeostasis, energy production, etc. There are different types of transporters including pumps, uniporters, antiporters, and symporters. Active transporters or ion pumps are transporters that convert energy from various sources—including adenosine triphosphate (ATP), sunlight, and other redox reactions—to potential energy by pumping an ion up its concentration gradient. This potential energy could then be used by secondary transporters, including ion carriers and ion channels, to drive vital cellular processes, such as ATP synthesis.
The galactose permease or GalP found in Escherichia coli is an integral membrane protein involved in the transport of monosaccharides, primarily hexoses, for utilization by E. coli in glycolysis and other metabolic and catabolic pathways (3,4). It is a member of the Major Facilitator Super Family (MFS) and is homologue of the human GLUT1 transporter (4). Below you will find descriptions of the structure, specificity, effects on homeostasis, expression, and regulation of GalP along with examples of several of its homologues.
The solute carrier (SLC) group of membrane transport proteins include over 400 members organized into 66 families. Most members of the SLC group are located in the cell membrane. The SLC gene nomenclature system was originally proposed by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) and is the basis for the official HGNC names of the genes that encode these transporters. A more general transmembrane transporter classification can be found in TCDB database.
Voltage-dependent anion channels, or mitochondrial porins, are a class of porin ion channel located on the outer mitochondrial membrane. There is debate as to whether or not this channel is expressed in the cell surface membrane.
An amino acid transporter is a membrane transport protein that transports amino acids. They are mainly of the solute carrier family.
The amino acid-polyamine-organocation (APC) superfamily is the second largest superfamily of secondary carrier proteins currently known, and it contains several Solute carriers. Originally, the APC superfamily consisted of subfamilies under the transporter classification number. This superfamily has since been expanded to include eighteen different families.
The Amino Acid-Polyamine-Organocation (APC) Family of transport proteins includes members that function as solute:cation symporters and solute:solute antiporters. They occur in bacteria, archaea, fungi, unicellular eukaryotic protists, slime molds, plants and animals. They vary in length, being as small as 350 residues and as large as 850 residues. The smaller proteins are generally of prokaryotic origin while the larger ones are of eukaryotic origin. Most of them possess twelve transmembrane α-helical spanners but have a re-entrant loop involving TMSs 2 and 3. The APC Superfamily was established to encompass a wider range of homologues.
The potassium (K+) uptake permease (KUP) family (TC# 2.A.72) is a member of the APC superfamily of secondary carriers. Proteins of the KUP/HAK/KT family include the KUP (TrkD) protein of E. coli and homologues in both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. High affinity (20 μM) K+ uptake systems (Hak1, TC# 2.A.72.2.1) of the yeast Debaryomyces occidentalis as well as the fungus, Neurospora crassa, and several homologues in plants have been characterized. Arabidopsis thaliana and other plants possess multiple KUP family paralogues. While many plant proteins cluster tightly together, the Hak1 proteins from yeast as well as the two Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial proteins are distantly related on the phylogenetic tree for the KUP family. All currently classified members of the KUP family can be found in the Transporter Classification Database.
Divalent anion:Na+ symporters were found in bacteria, archaea, plant chloroplasts and animals.
Phosphate permeases are membrane transport proteins that facilitate the diffusion of phosphate into and out of a cell or organelle. Some of these families include:
The ion transporter (IT) superfamily is a superfamily of secondary carriers that transport charged substrates.
The arsenical resistance-3 (ACR3) family is a member of the BART superfamily. Based on operon analyses, ARC3 homologues may function either as secondary carriers or as primary active transporters, similarly to the ArsB and ArsAB families. In the latter case ATP hydrolysis again energizes transport. ARC3 homologues transport the same anions as ArsA/AB homologues, though ArsB homologues are members of the IT Superfamily and homologues of the ARC3 family are within the BART Superfamily suggesting they may not be evolutionarily related.
The cation:proton antiporter (CPA) superfamily is a superfamily of transport proteins named after one of its constituent members, the monovalent cation:proton antiporter-2 (CPA2).
References
- ↑ Saier, Milton H.; Reddy, Vamsee S.; Tamang, Dorjee G.; Västermark, Åke (January 2014). "The Transporter Classification Database". Nucleic Acids Research. 42 (D1): D251–D258. doi:10.1093/nar/gkt1097. PMC 3964967 . PMID 24225317.
- ↑ Saier, M. H.; Yen, M. R.; Noto, K.; Tamang, D. G.; Elkan, C. (1 January 2009). "The Transporter Classification Database: recent advances". Nucleic Acids Research. 37 (Database): D274–D278. doi:10.1093/nar/gkn862. PMC 2686586 . PMID 19022853.
- ↑ Saier, M. H.; Tran, C. V.; Barabote, R. D. (1 January 2006). "TCDB: the Transporter Classification Database for membrane transport protein analyses and information". Nucleic Acids Research. 34 (90001): D181–D186. doi:10.1093/nar/gkj001. PMC 1334385 . PMID 16381841.