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Structural and mechanistic insights into prokaryotic energy-coupling factor transporters

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 12, pages 79–87 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Energy-coupling factor (ECF) transporters belong to the ATP-binding cassette (ABC)-transporter family and mediate the uptake of essential micronutrients in many prokaryotic species. Two crystal structures of bacterial ECF transporters have recently been obtained and suggest that transport involves an unprecedented re-orientation of a membrane protein in the lipid bilayer during catalysis. In this Progress article, I present the new structural insights, discuss a testable model for the transport mechanism and consider the more general implications of these findings for our understanding of membrane transporters.

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Figure 1: Composition and architecture of ECF transporters.
Figure 2: Structure of ECF transporters.
Figure 3: Models for alternating-access mechanisms of transport.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge support from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the European Research Council (ERC).

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  1. Dirk J. Slotboom is at the University of Groningen, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute and Zernike Institute for advanced Materials, Groningen, The Netherlands.,

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Slotboom, D. Structural and mechanistic insights into prokaryotic energy-coupling factor transporters. Nat Rev Microbiol 12, 79–87 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3175

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