Sequence Comparison of Yeast ATP-binding Cassette Proteins
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
A critical aspect of cellular physiology is the selective transport of ions, nutrients, proteins, and signaling molecules across cellular and organellar membranes, processes that are mediated by specific transporter and channel proteins. Over the past decade, molecular characterization has revealed that these transmembrane proteins can be grouped into discrete superfamilies. Members of a particular superfamily are similar in sequence, overall structure, and, presumably, in their mechanism of action. The largest of these groups, and the most intensively studied in recent years, is the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) superfamily, also called the “traffic ATPases,” which presently comprises more than 100 members and continues to grow at a rapid rate (Higgins 1992; Doige and Ames 1993). ABC proteins can be found in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes and are present not only in the plasma membrane but also in intracellular organellar membranes.
A great deal of attention has been focused on the ABC proteins...
