Biological ammonium transporters: evolution and diversification

Abstract

Although ammonium is the preferred nitrogen source for microbes and plants, in animal cells it is a toxic product of nitrogen metabolism that needs to be excreted. Thus, ammonium movement across biological membranes, whether for uptake or excretion, is a fundamental and ubiquitous biological process catalysed by the superfamily of the Amt/Mep/Rh transporters. A remarkable feature of the Amt/Mep/Rh family is that they are ubiquitous and, despite sharing low amino acid sequence identity, are highly structurally conserved. Despite sharing a common structure, these proteins have become involved in a diverse range of physiological process spanning all domains of life, with reports describing their involvement in diverse biological processes being published regularly. In this context, we exhaustively present their range of biological roles across the domains of life and after explore current hypotheses concerning their evolution to help to understand how and why the conserved structure fulfils diverse physiological functions.