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Solute carriers keep on rockin'

The crystal structure of a prokaryotic proton-driven fumarate transporter, the first for the diverse SLC26 transporter family, reveals a rare transmembrane-segment topology. The opposite orientation of two short central helices leads to the formation of a dipole-mediated anion-binding site, which is made alternately accessible to either side of the membrane through the rocking movement of the core and gate domains of the transporter.

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Figure 1: Structural features of the SLC26 transporters.

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Correspondence to Trevor F Moraes.

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Reithmeier, R., Moraes, T. Solute carriers keep on rockin'. Nat Struct Mol Biol 22, 752–754 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.3104

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