Glycine residues in potassium channel-like selectivity filters determine potassium selectivity in four-loop-per-subunit HKT transporters from plants.

ABSTRACT: Plant HKT proteins comprise a family of cation transporters together with prokaryotic KtrB, TrkH, and KdpA transporter subunits and fungal Trk proteins. These transporters contain four loop domains in one polypeptide with a proposed distant homology to K(+) channel selectivity filters. Functional expression in yeast and Xenopus oocytes revealed that wheat HKT1 mediates Na(+)-coupled K(+) transport. Arabidopsis AtHKT1, however, transports only Na(+) in eukaryotic expression systems. To understand the molecular basis of this difference we constructed a series of AtHKT1/HKT1 chimeras and introduced point mutations to AtHKT1 and wheat HKT1 at positions predicted to be critical for K(+) selectivity. A single-point mutation, Ser-68 to glycine, was sufficient to restore K(+) permeability to AtHKT

SUBMITTER: Maser P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC122965 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature