Echinococcus granulosus: specificity of amino acid transport systems in protoscoleces.
Protoscoleces of Echinococcus granulosus absorb the L-amino acids proline, methionine, leucine, alanine, serine, phenylalanine, lysine and glutamic acid by a combination of mediated transport and diffusion. All eight amino acids were accumulated against a concentration gradient. Comparison of Kt and Vmax values suggests that a low affinity for a particular compound is compensated for by a relatively larger number of transport sites for that compound. Four systems serve for the transport of the eight substrates studied: 2 for neutral (EgN1, EgN2) and 1 each for acidic (EgA) and basic (EgB) amino acids. All eight amino acids are incorporated into protein to varying degrees and substantial portions of absorbed L-alanine and L-methionine are metabolized into other compounds.
Jeffs
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Parasitology Research Laboratory, University of Keele.
Arme
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D000042:Absorption; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D004058:Diffusion; D004446:Echinococcus / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics
D000596:Amino Acids