An "inordinate fondness for transporters" explained?
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Updated: May 25, 2026

High-Throughput Expression and Purification of Human Solute Carriers for Structural and Biochemical Studies
Published on: September 29, 2023
1Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. eide@nutrisci.wisc.edu
Abstract:
An often-asked question is, Why are there so many different transporters in a cell to take up a particular substrate? At least part of the answer comes from work on the possible competitive advantage of dual-transporter systems. In such systems, low-affinity transporters function when a nutrient is plentiful in the environment, and the abundance of high-affinity transporters is increased when that nutrient becomes scarce. A dual-transporter system enabled a long "preparation phase" to occur during which cells induce gene expression as they become increasingly starved. Surprisingly, the preparation phase is important not for growth under low-nutrient conditions but rather for fluctuating nutrient amounts as commonly occurs in nature. Thus, this creative study provides a previously unconsidered explanation for the abundance of dual-transporter systems in biology.
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