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Updated: Oct 1, 2025

Author Spotlight: Exploring Cellular Zinc Regulation Through ZnT1 Functionality
Published on: June 2, 2023
Zinc homeostasis and regulation: Zinc transmembrane transport through transporters
Shuhua Yin1, Maoping Duan1, Bing Fang2
1Key Laboratory of Precision Nutrition and Food Quality, Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
Abstract:
The second abundant micronutrient, zinc, is attracting more and more attention for it performs essential functions in living organisms and bears close relationships with the occurrence of diseases. However, excess zinc is toxic to cells. Ensuring a balanced zinc state for organisms is essential. Zinc transporters, including ZIPs and ZnTs, are pivotal in regulating zinc homeostasis. Benefiting from zinc transporter structures determination and their transporting dynamic revelation, the clarification of detailed mechanisms of zinc trafficking and the maintenance of zinc homeostasis by transporters in the human body are getting more and more evident. The present review gives a detailed description of the structural basis of zinc transport through ZIP and ZnT, through which the molecular mechanism of zinc binding and transport was illustrated. Then the motive force that drives zinc transmembrane transport and finally a generalization for the regulation models of zinc transporters were summarized.
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