Insights into CLC transport mechanism through single transporter flux measurements

Abstract

CLC chloride-proton antiporters are part of a unique protein family that includes both secondary active transporters and ion channels. The dual-identity nature of this protein family makes it an ideal candidate for investigating the nature of coupling in transporters since the same protein fold, and nearly identical structures, result on one hand in transport proteins where multiple, tightly coupled ion movements allow thermodynamically uphill transport, but, on the other, in purely dissipative ion transfers catalyzed by ion channels.