Nitrate Transporter is a protein compound found in bacteria, specifically Escherichia coli[1].This protein compound is a complex made up of NarK and NarU.
Function
The Nitrate Transporter complex is active in regulation of nitrogen in the bacteria cell [2]. The complex is expected to provide both nitrate and nitrite transport mechanisms [3]. This transport of Nitrate is under speculation of being different than the typical canonical rocker-switch model[4]. On the NarU portion, Arg87, Arg303, As173, and Tyr261 are four amino acids that have solid electron density and seems to have functional importance. NarK does not seem to have the same electron density for an obvious binding site. In NarU, the transport mechanism was severely hindered when these amino acid sites were mutated. And when the amino acids were mutated, the binding site was prevented by the mutation from completing its function.
Disease
No diseases have been linked to the Nitrate transporter protein and any mutation of this protein does not seems to increase or decrease E. coli's growth or activity [5].
Relevance
The regulation of nitrate in a
Structural highlights
This is a sample scene created with SAT to by Group, and another to make of the protein. You can make your own scenes on SAT starting from scratch or loading and editing one of these sample scenes.
