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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Lipid Bilayer Experiments with Contact Bubble Bilayers for Patch-Clampers
Published on: January 16, 2019
How did the neurotransmitter cross the bilayer? A closer view
Mark S Sonders1, Matthias Quick, Jonathan A Javitch
1Center for Molecular Recognition and Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, P&S 11-401, 630 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Abstract:
Plasma membrane neurotransmitter transporters for monoamines, GABA, glycine and excitatory amino acids are homologous to two sizable families of bacterial amino acid transporters. Recently, a high resolution structure was determined for a thermophilic glutamate transporter. Also, a bacterial tryptophan transporter related to the family of biogenic amine neurotransmitter transporters was functionally expressed. Structural insights from these and other bacterial transporters will help to rationalize the mechanisms for the increasingly complex functions that have been described for mammalian transporters, in addition to their modes of regulation. We touch on recent insights into the functions of neurotransmitter transporters in their physiological contexts.
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