To be, or not to be two sites: That is the question about LeuT substrate binding

Abstract

Transport proteins of the neurotransmitter sodium symporter (NSS) family regulate the extracellular concentration of several neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. The only member of this family for which atomicresolution structural data are available is the prokaryotic homologue LeuT. This protein has been used as a model system to study the molecular mechanism of transport of the NSS family. In this Journal Club, we discuss two strikingly different LeuT transport mechanisms: one involving a single high-affinity substrate binding site and one recently proposed alternative involving two high-affinity substrate binding sites that are allosterically coupled. © 2011 Reyes and Tavoulari.