Elevator mechanism dynamics in a sodium-coupled dicarboxylate transporter.

ABSTRACT: VcINDY, the sodium-dependent dicarboxylate transporter from Vibrio cholerae, is responsible for C₄-carboxylate uptake into cells. The molecular mechanism of how VcINDY physically moves substrates across the membrane, and does so in an energetically efficient manner, is unclear. Here, we use single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer experiments to directly observe the individual mechanistic steps that VcINDY takes to translocate substrates across a lipid bilayer, and then test key predictions of transport cycle mechanistic models. Our data provide the first direct, dynamic evidence that VcINDY undergoes stochastic, elevator-type conformational motions that enable substrate translocation. The dynamics of these elevator motions are approximately an order

SUBMITTER: Kinz-Thompson CD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12799101 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature