A biochemical approach unveils the overall shape of a subclass of heavy-metal transporting pumps, thereby shedding light on principle molecular determinants linked to the transport mechanism of these elusive machines, information that is critical well beyond basic science.
Phosphorylation of a highly conserved serine residue is a physiological response of Escerichia coli to environmental potassium levels that inhibits transport by KdpFABC to maintain cellular homeostasis.
Crystal structures provide structural rationales for the transport stoichiometry of the gastric proton pump, which suffices the energy requirement for the generation of a million-fold proton gradient across the membrane.
Multicellular and socially aggregating prokaryotes contain previously undescribed, chaperone-based systems predicted to mediate defensive biological conflicts, several components of which are thematically similar antecedents of eukaryotic apoptosis pathways.
Structural and biochemical studies indicate that AAA+ ATPase employ a general mechanism to translocate a variety of substrates, including extended polypeptides, hairpins, crosslinked chains, and chains conjugated to other molecules.
Prokaryotic TRADD-N and Death-like adaptor domains in diverse predicted apoptosis and immune systems from multicellular prokaryotes and metazoans indicate the common origin of key apoptosis mechanisms required for the stabilization of multicellularity.
Daria N Shalaeva, Dmitry A Cherepanov ... Armen Y Mulkidjanian
In potassium-dependent NTPases, insertion of the activating potassium ion into the active site leads to rotation of the gamma-phosphate yielding a near-eclipsed, catalytically productive conformation of the triphosphate chain.
