ABC transporters form the largest of all transporter families, and their structural study has made tremen- dous progress over recent years. However, despite such advances, the precise mechanisms that determine the ene...ABC transporters form the largest of all transporter families, and their structural study has made tremen- dous progress over recent years. However, despite such advances, the precise mechanisms that determine the energy-coupling between ATP hydrolysis and the con- formational changes following substrate binding remain to be elucidated. Here, we present our thermodynamic analysis for both ABC importers and exporters, and introduce the two new concepts of differential-binding energy and elastic conformational energy into the dis- cussion. We hope that the structural analysis of ABC transporters will henceforth take thermodynamic aspects of transport mechanisms into account as well.展开更多
文摘ABC transporters form the largest of all transporter families, and their structural study has made tremen- dous progress over recent years. However, despite such advances, the precise mechanisms that determine the energy-coupling between ATP hydrolysis and the con- formational changes following substrate binding remain to be elucidated. Here, we present our thermodynamic analysis for both ABC importers and exporters, and introduce the two new concepts of differential-binding energy and elastic conformational energy into the dis- cussion. We hope that the structural analysis of ABC transporters will henceforth take thermodynamic aspects of transport mechanisms into account as well.
