Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Publication Date
1995
Volume
270
Issue
30
Disciplines
Medical Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences | Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Abstract
Application of L-glutamate activates ionic currents in voltage-clamped Xenopus oocytes expressing cloned human excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs). However, even in the absence of L-glutamate, the membrane conductance of oocytes expressing EAAT1 was significantly increased relative to oocytes expressing EAAT2 or control oocytes. Whereas transport mediated by EAAT2 is blocked by the non-transported competitive glutamate analog kainate (K = 14 μM), EAAT1 is relatively insensitive (K > 3 mM). Substitution of a block of 76 residues from EAAT2 into EAAT1, in which 18 residues varied from EAAT1, conferred high affinity kainate binding to EAAT1, and application of kainate to oocytes expressing the chimeric transporter blocked a pre-existing monovalent cation conductance that displayed a permeability sequence K > Na > Li choline. The results identify a structural domain of glutamate transporters that influences kainate binding and demonstrate the presence of a constitutive ion-selective pore in the transporter.
DOI
10.1074/jbc.270.30.17668
Rights
© 1995 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
Recommended Citation
Vandenberg, Robert J.; Arriza, Jeffrey L.; Amara, Susan G.; and Kavanaugh, Michael, "Constitutive Ion Fluxes and Substrate Binding Domains of Human Glutamate Transporters" (1995). Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications. 52.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/biopharm_pubs/52