title: The role and structure of mitochondrial carriers.
abstract: Members of the mitochondrial carrier family transport compounds over the inner mitochondrial membrane to link the biochemical pathways in the cytosol with those in the mitochondrial matrix. X-ray crystallography has recently provided us with the first atomic model of the bovine ADP/ATP carrier, which is a member of this family. The structure explains the typical three-fold sequence repeats and signature motif of mitochondrial carriers. However, the carrier was crystallised as a monomer in detergent, which is inconsistent with the consensus that mitochondrial carriers exist as homo-dimers. The projection structure of the yeast ADP/ATP carrier by electron crystallography shows that carriers could form homo-dimers in the membrane.
authors.affiliation: MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2XY, UK. ek@mrc-dunn.cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: Edmund R S
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Kunji
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D000226:Mitochondrial ADP, ATP Translocases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins; D000226:Mitochondrial ADP, ATP Translocases