Structure and evolution of amino acid transporters

The inactivation of transport proteins by mutations not only allows identification and functional characterization of permeases it is also the prerequisite to isolating permease genes by functional complementation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. 

Molecular cloning and nucleotide. sequencing of amino acid permease genes 

Five structural genes for amino acid uptake systems have been cloned in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by functional complementation, and their putative amino acid sequences deduced from the respective nucleotide sequences (Fig. 2). 

Despite the limited information available, rather clear predictions can be made about the probable structure, location, and energy coupling of the amino acid transporters of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, by comparing them with better known systems in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. 

In bacteria, accumulation of substrates against a concentration gradient can occur through two main classes of transport systems (see [30] for a summary). The prototype of the first class of transporters is the /3-galactoside permease of Escherichia coli (see [31]). It is a relatively simple system involving only a single membrane-bound protein. It catalyzes a lactose-H symport. Other transporters 

---