Structure of a pantothenate transporter and implications for ECF module sharing and energy coupling of group II ECF transporters.
Zhang, M., Bao, Z., Zhao, Q., Guo, H., Xu, K., Wang, C., Zhang, P.(2014) Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111: 18560-18565
- PubMed: 25512487 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1412246112
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
4RFS - PubMed Abstract: 
Energy-coupling factor (ECF) transporters are a unique group of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters responsible for micronutrient uptake from the environment. Each ECF transporter is composed of an S component (or EcfS protein) and T/A/A' components (or EcfT/A/A' proteins; ECF module). Among the group II ECF transporters, several EcfS proteins share one ECF module; however, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Here we report the structure of a group II ECF transporter-pantothenate transporter from Lactobacillus brevis (LbECF-PanT), which shares the ECF module with the folate and hydroxymethylpyrimidine transporters (LbECF-FolT and LbECF-HmpT). Structural and mutational analyses revealed the residues constituting the pantothenate-binding pocket. We found that although the three EcfS proteins PanT, FolT, and HmpT are dissimilar in sequence, they share a common surface area composed of the transmembrane helices 1/2/6 (SM1/2/6) to interact with the coupling helices 2/3 (CH2/3) of the same EcfT. CH2 interacts mainly with SM1 via hydrophobic interactions, which may modulate the sliding movement of EcfS. CH3 binds to a hydrophobic surface groove formed by SM1, SM2, and SM6, which may transmit the conformational changes from EcfA/A' to EcfS. We also found that the residues at the intermolecular surfaces in LbECF-PanT are essential for transporter activity, and that these residues may mediate intermolecular conformational transmission and/or affect transporter complex stability. In addition, we found that the structure of EcfT is conformationally dynamic, which supports its function as a scaffold to mediate the interaction of the ECF module with various EcfS proteins to form different transporter complexes.
Organizational Affiliation: 
National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics and.