Abstract
Transmembrane sodium-ion gradients provide energy that can be harnessed by 'secondary transporters' to drive the translocation of solute molecules into a cell. Decades of study have shown that such sodium-coupled transporters are involved in many physiological processes, making them targets for the treatment of numerous diseases. Within the past year, crystal structures of several sodium-coupled transporters from different families have been reported, showing a remarkable structural conservation between functionally unrelated transporters. These atomic-resolution structures are revealing the mechanism of the sodium-coupled transport of solutes across cellular membranes.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the US National Institutes of Health. E.G. is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. We thank R. Hibbs, K. Hollenstein, H. Owen, S. Singh and A. Sobolevsky for helpful comments and L. Vaskalis for assistance with the figures.
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Correspondence should be addressed to E.G. (gouauxe@ohsu.edu).
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Krishnamurthy, H., Piscitelli, C. & Gouaux, E. Unlocking the molecular secrets of sodium-coupled transporters. Nature 459, 347–355 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08143
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08143
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