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Updated: Apr 29, 2026

Structural Biology and Analytical Chemistry Approaches for Characterizing C-Glycoside Metabolic Enzymes in Human Gut Microbiota
Published on: May 23, 2025
Crystal structure of the human glucose transporter GLUT1
Dong Deng1, Chao Xu1, Pengcheng Sun2
11] State Key Laboratory of Bio-membrane and Membrane Biotechnology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China [2] Center for Structural Biology, School of Life Sciences and School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China [3] Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China [4].
Abstract:
The glucose transporter GLUT1 catalyses facilitative diffusion of glucose into erythrocytes and is responsible for glucose supply to the brain and other organs. Dysfunctional mutations may lead to GLUT1 deficiency syndrome, whereas overexpression of GLUT1 is a prognostic indicator for cancer. Despite decades of investigation, the structure of GLUT1 remains unknown. Here we report the crystal structure of human GLUT1 at 3.2 Å resolution. The full-length protein, which has a canonical major facilitator superfamily fold, is captured in an inward-open conformation. This structure allows accurate mapping and potential mechanistic interpretation of disease-associated mutations in GLUT1. Structure-based analysis of these mutations provides an insight into the alternating access mechanism of GLUT1 and other members of the sugar porter subfamily. Structural comparison of the uniporter GLUT1 with its bacterial homologue XylE, a proton-coupled xylose symporter, allows examination of the transport mechanisms of both passive facilitators and active transporters.
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Glucose Transporters
Facilitated diffusion-glucose transporters (GLUTs) are encoded by the solute-linked carrier (SLC) family 2, subfamily A gene family, or SLC2A. The 14 GLUT protein members are distributed into three classes:
Membrane Proteins
Glucose Absorption Into the Small Intestine
Secondary Active Transport
Secondary Active Transport
Fischer Projections

