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Membrane transport proteins: surprises in structural sameness

An X-ray crystal structure of an organic anion transporter identifies it as an ion channel instead. Its similarity to an unrelated family of water channels raises evolutionary questions that have been recently bubbling up around membrane proteins.

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Figure 1: Fold statistics are similar for sequence-heterogeneous membrane proteins and soluble proteins.

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Correspondence to Douglas L Theobald or Christopher Miller.

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Theobald, D., Miller, C. Membrane transport proteins: surprises in structural sameness. Nat Struct Mol Biol 17, 2–3 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb0110-2

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