Transmembrane Molecular Transporters Facilitating Export of Molecules from Cells and Organelles
Maksim A. Shlykov, Wei Hao Zheng, Eric Wang, Justin D. Nguyen, Milton H. Saier and Jr.
from: Microbial Efflux Pumps: Current Research (Edited by: Edward W. Yu, Qijing Zhang and Melissa H. Brown). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2013)
Abstract
Transport systems catalyze the uptake and efflux of solutes and macromolecules from all living cells and organelles. In this chapter, we review multiple types of efflux systems responsible for the export of inorganic and organic cations and anions, metabolites, drugs, complex carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. These types fall into three primary categories: simple channels, secondary carriers and primary active transporters. We select a number of well-characterized systems in order to illustrate the structures and functions of different types of transporters as well as their mechanisms of action. However, metabolite exporters, in contrast to uptake systems and drug and macromolecular exporters, are still poorly characterized. We anticipate that studies conducted in the near future will reveal a plethora of metabolite exporters while revealing relatively few novel systems for metabolite uptake read more ...
