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STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY: The Atomic Architecture of a Gas Channel
Mark A. Knepper and Peter Agre
Both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells need to be able to transport ammonia gas. In their Perspective, Knepper and Agre discuss an exciting study (Khademi et al.) that reports resolution of the crystallographic structure of a bacterial ammonia transport channel, AmtB, to an astonishing 1.35 angstroms, an amazing feat for an integral membrane protein. The structure reveals how ammonia is transported in bacteria and sheds light on how related ammonia transport proteins work in eukaryotic cells.
M. A. Knepper is in the Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. E-mail: pagre{at}jhmi.edu
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In Science Magazine
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Shahram Khademi, Joseph O'Connell, III, Jonathan Remis, Yaneth Robles-Colmenares, Larry J. W. Miercke, and Robert M. Stroud (10 September 2004) Science305 (5690), 1587.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.1101952] |Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »|Supporting Online Material »
Ammonium transport in the colonic crypt cell line, T84: role for Rhesus glycoproteins and NKCC1.
R. T. Worrell, L. Merk, and J. B. Matthews (2008)
Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
294, G429-G440
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Evidence from knockout mice against physiologically significant aquaporin 8-facilitated ammonia transport.
B. Yang, D. Zhao, E. Solenov, and A. S. Verkman (2006)
Am J Physiol Cell Physiol
291, C417-C423
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Genetic ablation of Rhbg in the mouse does not impair renal ammonium excretion.
R. Chambrey, D. Goossens, S. Bourgeois, N. Picard, M. Bloch-Faure, F. Leviel, V. Geoffroy, M. Cambillau, Y. Colin, M. Paillard, et al. (2005)
Am J Physiol Renal Physiol
289, F1281-F1290
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