The mechanism of transport by mitochondrial carriers based on analysis of symmetry
The mechanism of transport by mitochondrial carriers based on analysis of symmetry
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DOI:
10.1073/pnas.0809580105
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发表时间:
2008-11-18
影响因子:
11.1
通讯作者:
Kunji, Edmund R. S.
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Robinson, Alan J.;Overy, Catherine;Kunji, Edmund R. S.
The structures of mitochondrial transporters and uncoupling proteins are 3-fold pseuclosymmetrical, but their substrates and coupling ions are not. Thus, deviations from symmetry are to be expected in the substrate and ion-binding sites in the central aqueous cavity. By analyzing the 3-fold pseuclosymmetrical repeats from which their sequences are made, conserved asymmetric residues were found to cluster in a region of the central cavity identified previously as the common substrate-binding site. Conserved symmetrical residues required for the transport mechanism were found at the water-membrane interfaces, and they include the three PX[DE]XX[RK] motifs, which form a salt bridge network on the matrix side of the cavity when the substrate-binding site is open to the mitochondrial intermembrane space. Symmetrical residues in three [FY][DE]XX[RK] motifs are on the cytoplasmic side of the cavity and could form a salt bridge network when the substrate-binding site is accessible from the mitochondrial matrix. It is proposed that the opening and closing of the carrier may be coupled to the disruption and formation of the 2 salt bridge networks via a 3-fold rotary twist induced by substrate binding. The interaction energies of the networks allow members of the transporter family to be classified as strict exchangers or uniporters.