Biophysics

Structural determinants of water permeation through the sodium-galactose transporter vSGLT

Sodium-glucose transporters (SGLTs) facilitate the movement of water across the cell membrane, playing a central role in cellular homeostasis. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the mechanism of water permeation through the inward-facing state …

Energetics of Urea Permeation through Sodium-Dependent Galactose Cotransporter vSGLT

In human kidneys, the glomeruli filter about 54 g of urea from the blood each day and approximately 12-14 g of which is reabsorbed in the proximal tubule that is believed to be devoid of urea channels or uniporters. Experimental evidence suggests …

Insight into the Mechanism of Water Permeation through the Sodium-Galactose Transporter vSGLT from Long Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Sodium-glucose transporters (SGLTs) mediate sugar transport as well as water flow across the cell membrane. Using a series of long molecular dynamics simulations generated on the special-purpose Anton supercomputer totaling nearly 16 microseconds in …

Understanding Substrate Unbinding from the Sodium-Galactose Co-Transporter vSGLT based on 16 Microseconds of Molecular Simulation

We report the results from 16 microseconds of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations carried out on vSGLT using the Anton supercomputer at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. We observed multiple galactose unbinding events as well as instances in …

Water Permeation Through the Sodium-Dependent Galactose Cotransporter vSGLT

It is well accepted that cotransporters facilitate water movement by two independent mechanisms: osmotic flow through a water channel in the protein and flow driven by ion/substrate cotransport. However, the molecular mechanism of transport-linked …

The mechanism of sodium and substrate release from the binding pocket of vSGLT

Membrane co-transport proteins that use a five-helix inverted repeat motif have recently emerged as one of the largest structural classes of secondary active transporters1,2. However, despite many structural advances there is no clear evidence of how …

Water permeation through the sodium-dependent galactose cotransporter vSGLT

It is well accepted that cotransporters facilitate water movement by two independent mechanisms: osmotic flow through a water channel in the protein and flow driven by ion/substrate cotransport. However, the molecular mechanism of transport-linked …

Computational Approaches to Understanding the Mechanism of Transport in the Na+/Galactose Co-Transporter vSGLT

A number of recent high resolution structures suggest that a larger family of cation coupled substrate transporters share a common core architecture. At the molecular level, it is not known how this architecture enables them to harness the energy …

Conformational dynamics of the inner pore helix of voltage-gated potassium channels

Voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels control the electrical excitability of neurons and muscles. Despite this key role, how these channels open and close or gate is not fully understood. Gating is usually attributed to the bending and straightening …

Molecular dynamics simulation study of a pulmonary surfactant film interacting with a carbonaceous nanoparticle

This article reports an all-atom molecular dynamics simulation to study a model pulmonary surfactant film interacting with a carbonaceous nanoparticle. The pulmonary surfactant is modeled as a dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine monolayer with a peptide …