Mechanisms of drug/H+ antiport: complete cysteine-scanning mutagenesis and the protein engineering approach

Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2003 Oct;7(5):570-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2003.08.014.

Abstract

The notorious difficulty of elucidating structures of membrane transporters by crystallography has long prevented our understanding of active transport mechanism coupled with ion/proton transport. The determination of the first crystal structure of the drug/H+ antiporter AcrB was a breakthrough for structure-based understanding of drug/H+ antiport. However, although AcrB is a major multidrug exporter in Gram-negative organisms, the majority of bacterial drug exporters are major facilitator superfamily (MFS) drug transporters. As no crystal structures have been solved for MFS transporters, the alternative protein-engineering methods are still very useful for estimating structures and functions of drug/H+ antiporters. This review describes this alternative approach for investigating the structure and function of tetracycline/H+ antiporters.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Antiporters / chemistry
  • Antiporters / genetics
  • Antiporters / metabolism*
  • Bacterial Proteins / chemistry
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism*
  • Biological Transport
  • Cysteine / chemistry*
  • Electrochemistry
  • Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutagenesis
  • Mutagenesis, Site-Directed
  • Protein Engineering*
  • Protein Structure, Secondary
  • Tetracyclines / metabolism*
  • Tetracyclines / pharmacology

Substances

  • Antiporters
  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Tetracyclines
  • tetA protein, Bacteria
  • Cysteine