Abstract
Zinc is an essential micronutrient which is required for the function of hundreds of cellular enzymes. In addition, zinc is the second most abundant transition metal found in biological systems (iron is most abundant). However, the concentration of free zinc is nano to picomolar since most zinc is bound to proteins. This makes investigating the mechanism of zinc transport across the plasma membrane a challenge. Our interest has been to elucidate the mechanism of zinc transport mediated by one member of the ZIP family of proteins, hZIP4. hZIP4 is located at the primary location of zinc uptake in humans and has been directly implicated in multiple disease states including Acrodermatitis enteropathica and pancreatic cancer. However the mechanism of transport is not known. We have previously shown that Zn2+, Ni2+ and Cu2+ can be transported by hZIP4, following heterologous expression in X. laevis oocytes, where there are two binding affinities (in the nM and μM range of biometal). Currently, our research interests are to investigate the mechanism of ion translocation using a mixture of biochemical and biophysical techniques.
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