Membrane transporters are critical to the passage of molecules across biological membranes and compartments, including the extracellular and intracellular environments. For this reason, these proteins play a crucial role in a plethora of patho-physiological processes in all organisms and as such are of big interest from the biomedical and biotechnological viewpoint. This category comprehends primary active, secondary active, and passive transporters, which exert their function through a conformational change induced by the ligand binding itself or other distinct mechanisms (e.g., allosteric gating, transmembrane potential, ATP hydrolysis, etc.).
Membrane transporters represent a challenging class of proteins to study due to their native lipid environment and highly dynamic nature, which is necessary for transport function. For this reason, understanding the relationship between the structure and function of these proteins is not trivial. Given the recent advances in experimental and computational techniques, many membrane transporters have been successfully characterized. In this regard, this Research Topic aims to collect scientific contributions concerning the study of membrane transporters, with a specific focus on the characterization of the relationship between their structure, dynamics, and mechanism of action. This also includes studies on the interactions between transporters and membrane lipids and how these affect protein activity. Themes of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Modeling and simulations
• Three-dimensional structure analyses
• Conformational ensembles
• Ligand recognition
• Allosteric regulation
• Protein dynamics
• Protein-membrane interactions
• Gating mechanism
Membrane transporters are critical to the passage of molecules across biological membranes and compartments, including the extracellular and intracellular environments. For this reason, these proteins play a crucial role in a plethora of patho-physiological processes in all organisms and as such are of big interest from the biomedical and biotechnological viewpoint. This category comprehends primary active, secondary active, and passive transporters, which exert their function through a conformational change induced by the ligand binding itself or other distinct mechanisms (e.g., allosteric gating, transmembrane potential, ATP hydrolysis, etc.).
Membrane transporters represent a challenging class of proteins to study due to their native lipid environment and highly dynamic nature, which is necessary for transport function. For this reason, understanding the relationship between the structure and function of these proteins is not trivial. Given the recent advances in experimental and computational techniques, many membrane transporters have been successfully characterized. In this regard, this Research Topic aims to collect scientific contributions concerning the study of membrane transporters, with a specific focus on the characterization of the relationship between their structure, dynamics, and mechanism of action. This also includes studies on the interactions between transporters and membrane lipids and how these affect protein activity. Themes of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Modeling and simulations
• Three-dimensional structure analyses
• Conformational ensembles
• Ligand recognition
• Allosteric regulation
• Protein dynamics
• Protein-membrane interactions
• Gating mechanism
