The Environment Shapes the Inner Vestibule of LeuT

Sohail, Azmat; Jayaraman, Kumaresan; Venkatesan, Santhoshkannan; Gotfryd, Kamil; Daerr, Markus; Gether, Ulrik; Loland, Claus J.; Wanner, Klaus T.; Freissmuth, Michael; Sitte, Harald H.; Sandtner, Walter und Stockner, Thomas (2016): The Environment Shapes the Inner Vestibule of LeuT.
In: PLOS Computational Biology 12(11), e1005197

Abstract

Human neurotransmitter transporters are found in the nervous system terminating synaptic signals by rapid removal of neurotransmitter molecules from the synaptic cleft. The homologous transporter LeuT, found in Aquifex aeolicus, was crystallized in different conformations. Here, we investigated the inward-open state of LeuT. We compared LeuT in membranes and micelles using molecular dynamics simulations and lanthanide-based resonance energy transfer (LRET). Simulations of micelle-solubilized LeuT revealed a stable and widely open inward-facing conformation. However, this conformation was unstable in a membrane environment. The helix dipole and the charged amino acid of the first transmembrane helix (TM1A) partitioned out of the hydrophobic membrane core. Free energy calculations showed that movement of TM1A by 0.30 nm was driven by a free energy difference of similar to 15 kJ/mol. Distance measurements by LRET showed TM1A movements, consistent with the simulations, confirming a substantially different inward-open conformation in lipid bilayer from that inferred from the crystal structure.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Chemie und Pharmazie > Department für Pharmazie - Zentrum für Pharmaforschung
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 540 Chemie
• ISSN: 1553-734X
• Sprache: Englisch