Metal Transporters

This volume of Current Topics in Membranes focuses on metal transmembrane transporters and pumps, a recently discovered family of membrane proteins with many important roles in the physiology of living organisms. The book summarizes the most recent advances in the field of metal ion transport and provides a broad overview of the major classes of transporters involved in homeostasis of heavy metals. Various families of the transporters and metal specificities are discussed with the focus on the structural and mechanistic aspects of their function and regulation. The reader will access information obtained through a variety of approaches ranging from X-ray crystallography to cell biology and bioinformatics, which have been applied to transporters identified in diverse biological systems, such as pathogenic bacteria, plants, humans and others.

Wide breadth of topic coverage

Contributors of high renown and expertise

1. Metal ion physiology: Mechanistic approach

2. Transferrin mediated iron uptake

3. Structure-function of siderophore-iron transporters

4. Iron transport machinery of human cells: players and their interactions

5. Mechanism of copper uptake in mammalian cells

6. Heavy metal transport P-type ATPases

7. CUS periplasmic Cu+ efflux system

8. Molecular architecture and function of ZnT transporters

9. Structure-function of ZIP transporters

10. Nramp family of transporters

11. Plant YSL metal transporters

12. Pathways of arsenic uptake and detoxification

13. Mechanisms of heme transport and trafficking

14. Mechanisms of Mg2+ and Co2+ transport