<p>Glutamate transporters have a homotrimeric subunit structure with a large central water-filled cavity that extends partially into the plane of the lipid bilayer (Yernool et al., 2004). In addition to uptake of glutamate, the transporters also mediate a chloride conductance that is gated by Na+ and glutamate. Our data indicate that glutamate binding sites, transport pathways, and chloride channels reside in individual subunits in the trimer and function independently and that the anion channel is gated by alkali cations binding from either side of the membrane. We also investigated conformational changes during glutamate binding by incorporating a fluorescent probe into a site near the postulated external gate (HP2) of a mutant transporter that can bind but not transport L-Glu. Fluorescence changes were observed upon ligand binding that strongly depended on the number of subunits labeled; this suggests quenched fluorophore dimers form at the center of the trimer that are subject to HP2 loop closure upon substrate binding. This supports a model of gate motion that is also consistent with recent x-ray structural data (Boudker et al., 2007). Finally, we propose that the large aqueous central cavity in the trimeric complex (Yernool et al., 2004) may function to restrict the diffusion of molecules near the three ligand binding sites, resulting in an increase in the probability of rebinding.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-03262009-135837 |
| Date | 28 April 2009 |
| Creators | Leary, Gregory Patrick |
| Contributors | Michael P Kavanaugh, Richard J Bridges, Alexander Ross, Stephen Lodmell |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-03262009-135837/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds