Size does matter: 18 amino acids at the N-terminal tip of an amino acid transporter in Leishmania determine substrate specificity

Schlisselberg, Doreen; Mazarib, Eldar; Inbar, Ehud; Rentsch, Doris; Myler, Peter J.; Zilberstein, Dan (2015). Size does matter: 18 amino acids at the N-terminal tip of an amino acid transporter in Leishmania determine substrate specificity. Scientific Reports, 5, p. 16289. Nature Publishing Group 10.1038/srep16289

[img]
Preview
Text
SciRep_5_16289.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY).

Download (876kB) | Preview

Long N-terminal tails of amino acid transporters are known to act as sensors of the internal pool of amino acids and as positive regulators of substrate flux rate. In this study we establish that N-termini of amino acid transporters can also determine substrate specificity. We show that due to alternative trans splicing, the human pathogen Leishmania naturally expresses two variants of the proline/alanine transporter, one 18 amino acid shorter than the other. We demonstrate that the longer variant (LdAAP24) translocates both proline and alanine, whereas the shorter variant (∆18LdAAP24) translocates just proline. Remarkably, co-expressing the hydrophilic N-terminal peptide of the long variant with ∆18LdAAP24 was found to recover alanine transport. This restoration of alanine transport could be mediated by a truncated N-terminal tail, though truncations exceeding half of the tail length were no longer functional. Taken together, the data indicate that the first 18 amino acids of the negatively charged N-terminal LdAAP24 tail are required for alanine transport and may facilitate the electrostatic interactions of the entire negatively charged N-terminal tail with the positively charged internal loops in the transmembrane domain, as this mechanism has been shown to underlie regulation of substrate flux rate for other transporters.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) > Molecular Plant Physiology
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS)

UniBE Contributor:

Rentsch, Doris

Subjects:

500 Science > 580 Plants (Botany)

ISSN:

2045-2322

Publisher:

Nature Publishing Group

Language:

English

Submitter:

Peter Alfred von Ballmoos-Haas

Date Deposited:

24 Nov 2015 10:50

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:50

Publisher DOI:

10.1038/srep16289

PubMed ID:

26549185

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.73107

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/73107

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback