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Related Concept Videos

Membrane Transporters01:31

Membrane Transporters

Transporters are essential membrane transport proteins with functions related to cell nutrition, homeostasis, communication, etc. Approximately 7% of all genes in the human genome code for transporters or transporter-related proteins.
Transporters are mainly composed of alpha-helices, built from bundles of ten or more helices traversing the plasma membrane. The solute-binding sites are located midway, where some of the helices are broken or distorted, making space for the binding site through...
Pharmacogenetics of Drug Transporters: P-Glycoprotein and Solute Carrier Transporters01:16

Pharmacogenetics of Drug Transporters: P-Glycoprotein and Solute Carrier Transporters

The pharmacogenetics of drug transporters is increasingly recognized as a critical factor influencing interindividual variability in drug absorption, distribution, and elimination. These membrane-bound proteins regulate drugs' movement across cellular barriers by actively pumping them out (efflux) or facilitating their uptake (influx). Among the major transporter families, ATP-binding cassette (ABC) and solute carrier (SLC) transporters play particularly prominent roles. Genetic polymorphisms...
Transcellular Transport of Solutes01:23

Transcellular Transport of Solutes

Transcellular transport of solutes is the movement of substances like monosaccharides and amino acids through polarized cells. This transport mechanism is primarily seen in epithelial and endothelial cells aided by membrane transport proteins such as channels and transporters. The tight junctions between these cells confine the membrane proteins to the two sides of the cell. The epithelial cells have distinct apical and basolateral domains. In contrast, the endothelial cells show the luminal...
Facilitated Diffusion01:16

Facilitated Diffusion

The plasma membrane, a critical structure in cellular biology, houses an array of transporters, or carrier proteins, interspersed within its lipid bilayer. These proteins play a crucial role in solute transport through facilitated diffusion, a form of passive diffusion that uses transporters to move the molecules across the membrane.
In this process, substrates such as organic compounds and ions interact with a transporter on one side, triggering conformational changes in proteins that enable...
Drug Absorption Mechanism: Carrier-Mediated Membrane Transport01:19

Drug Absorption Mechanism: Carrier-Mediated Membrane Transport

Certain large, lipid-insoluble drug molecules that resemble amino acids, peptides, or glucose, require specialized carrier proteins to facilitate their diffusion across cell membranes. This transport can occur through either facilitated diffusion, which does not require energy input, or active transport, which does require energy input.
Facilitated diffusion is a passive process that utilizes human Solute Carrier (SLC) transporters. These transporters bind to the drug, undergo structural...
The Significance of Membrane Transport01:44

The Significance of Membrane Transport

The transport of solutes across the cell membrane is essential for metabolic processes, like maintaining cell size and volume, generating the action potential, exchanging nutrients and gases, etc. Membrane transport can be either passive or active. It can be simple diffusion, facilitated, or mediated transport aided by transport proteins such as transporters and channels.
Transporters facilitate either an active or passive movement of solutes. They can allow a single-molecule transport down its...

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High-Throughput Expression and Purification of Human Solute Carriers for Structural and Biochemical Studies
07:10

High-Throughput Expression and Purification of Human Solute Carriers for Structural and Biochemical Studies

Published on: September 29, 2023

Comparison of human solute carriers.

Avner Schlessinger1, Pär Matsson, James E Shima

  • 1Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California. schles@salilab.org

Protein Science : a Publication of the Protein Society
|January 7, 2010
PubMed
Summary

This study classifies solute carriers (SCs), essential membrane proteins, revealing new functional relationships and identifying four novel human SCs. This work aids in understanding SC substrate specificity and modeling their structures.

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Area of Science:

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Bioinformatics

Background:

  • Solute carriers (SCs) are vital eukaryotic membrane proteins regulating the transport of essential compounds, toxins, and drugs.
  • Identifying sequence relationships among SCs is crucial for understanding their structure, substrate specificity, and transport mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To comprehensively compare solute carriers and classify them based on sequence similarities and functional relationships.
  • To uncover novel relationships between SC families and identify new putative solute carriers in the human genome.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized sensitive profile-profile alignments and similarity network classifications to compare solute carrier proteins.
  • Analyzed clusters based on substrate type, transport mode, organism conservation, and tissue specificity.
  • Performed computational and experimental validation of functional overlaps between SC families.

Main Results:

  • Solute carrier families with similar substrates generally clustered together, even with weak sequence similarities.
  • Discovered previously unrecognized relationships between certain SC families, suggesting unexplored functional connections.
  • Identified four new putative solute carriers in the human genome.

Conclusions:

  • The proposed classification of solute carriers reveals new inter-family relationships and identifies novel SCs.
  • This classification scheme provides a foundation for future structural modeling of SCs, essential for elucidating substrate specificities.