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Updated: Mar 26, 2026

Introduction to Solid Supported Membrane Based Electrophysiology
Published on: May 11, 2013
How does the chemical potential of the substrate drive a uniporter?
1National Laboratory of Macromolecules, National Center of Protein Science-Beijing, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
Abstract:
Uniporters are a large class of transporters mediating facilitated diffusion of substrates along the direction of the substrate concentration gradient. Recently, structures of several important uniporters have been reported; however, the precise mechanisms of uniporter function remain subject of debate. Here, we present a series of general thermodynamic descriptions of uniporters, aimed at understanding the structure-function relationship of uniporters, and in particular to reconcile biochemical phenomena of uniporters with our previously proposed thermodynamic model of general transporters.
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