Light-activated amino acid transport in Halobacterium halobium envelope vesicles

Vesicles prepared from Halobacterium halobium cell envelopes accumulate amino acids in response to light-induced electrical and chemical gradients. Nineteen of 20 commonly occurring amino acids have been shown to be actively accumulated by these vesicles in response to illumination or in response to an artificially created Na-gradient. Sodium-activated amino acid transport for 18 of these amino acids has been shown to occur in direct response to the protonmotive force generated. Glutamate is transported only in response to a sodium gradient. Michaelis constants for the uptake of these amino acids are close or identical whether the amino acids are accumulated in response to a sodium gradient or a protonmotive force (i.e., electrical gradient). On the basis of shared common carriers the transport systems can be divided into eight classes, each responsible for the transport of one or several amino acids, i.e., arginine, lysine, histidine; asparagine, glutamine; alanine, glycine, threonine, serine; leucine, valine, isoleucine, methionine; phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan; aspartate; glutamate; proline. Available evidence suggests that these carriers are symmetrical in that amino acids can be transported equally well in both directions across the vesicle membranes. A tentative working model to account for these observations is presented.