Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 27, 2025

Translating Ribosome Affinity Purification TRAP to Investigate Arabidopsis thaliana Root Development at a Cell Type-Specific Scale
Published on: May 14, 2020
Structural basis of urea transport by Arabidopsis thaliana DUR3
Weidong An1,2,3,4, Yiwei Gao2,3,4, Laihua Liu5
1Peking University Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Agricultural Sciences at Weifang, Weifang, Shandong, China.
Abstract:
Urea is a primary nitrogen source used as fertilizer in agricultural plant production and a crucial nitrogen metabolite in plants, playing an essential role in modern agriculture. In plants, DUR3 is a proton-driven high-affinity urea transporter located on the plasma membrane. It not only absorbs external low-concentration urea as a nutrient but also facilitates nitrogen transfer by recovering urea from senescent leaves. Despite its importance, the high-affinity urea transport mechanism in plants remains insufficiently understood. In this study, we determine the structures of Arabidopsis thaliana DUR3 in two different conformations: the inward-facing open state of the apo structure and the occluded urea-bound state, with overall resolutions of 2.8 Å and 3.0 Å, respectively. By comparing these structures and analyzing their functional characteristics, we elucidated how urea molecules are specifically recognized. In the urea-bound structure, we identified key titratable amino acid residues and proposed a model for proton involvement in urea transport based on structural and functional data. This study enhances our understanding of proton-driven urea transport mechanisms in DUR3.
More Related Videos
08:31Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Agrobacterium rhizogenes-Mediated Transformation of Potato and the Promoter Activity of a Suberin Gene by GUS Staining
Published on: March 29, 2019
13:16Characterization of Membrane Transporters by Heterologous Expression in E. coli and Production of Membrane Vesicles
Published on: December 31, 2019
Related Concept Videos
Urea Cycle
Short-distance Transport of Resources
Protein Transport to the Thylakoids
Protein Transport to the Inner Chloroplast Membrane
The Significance of Membrane Transport
Transporters facilitate either an active or passive movement of solutes. They can allow a single-molecule transport down its...
Transfer RNA Synthesis
Each of these chemical modifications is carried by a specific enzyme, post-transcription. All of these enzymes have unique base and site-specificity. Methylation, the most common chemical modification, is carried by at least nine different enzymes, with...