Abstract
Transmembrane protein 175 (TMEM175) is a K+-selective ion channel expressed in lysosomal membranes, where it establishes a membrane potential essential for lysosomal function and its dysregulation is associated with the development of Parkinson's Disease. TMEM175 is evolutionarily distinct from all known channels, predicting novel ion-selectivity and gating mechanisms. Here we present cryo-EM structures of human TMEM175 in open and closed conformations, enabled by resolutions up to 2.6Å. Human TMEM175 adopts a homodimeric architecture with a central ion-conduction pore lined by the side chains of the pore-lining helices. Conserved isoleucine residues in the center of the pore serve as the gate in the closed conformation. In the widened channel in the open conformation, these same residues establish a constriction essential for K+ selectivity. These studies reveal the mechanisms of permeation, selectivity and gating and lay the groundwork for understanding the role of TMEM175 in lysosomal function.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Searle Scholars Program
- Richard K Hite
Josie Robertson Investigators Program
- Richard K Hite
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Baron Chanda, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
Publication history
- Received: November 7, 2019
- Accepted: March 29, 2020
- Accepted Manuscript published: March 31, 2020 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: April 8, 2020 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2020, Oh et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 2,932
- Page views
-
- 537
- Downloads
-
- 0
- Citations
Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: Crossref, PubMed Central, Scopus.