Gating Topology of the Proton-Coupled Oligopeptide Symporters

Summary

Proton-coupled oligopeptide transporters belong to the major facilitator superfamily (MFS) of membrane transporters. Recent crystal structures suggest the MFS fold facilitates transport through rearrangement of their two six-helix bundles around a central ligand binding site; how this is achieved, however, is poorly understood. Using modeling, molecular dynamics, crystallography, functional assays, and site-directed spin labeling combined with double electron-electron resonance (DEER) spectroscopy, we present a detailed study of the transport dynamics of two bacterial oligopeptide transporters, PepT _So and PepT _St. Our results identify several salt bridges that stabilize outward-facing conformations and we show that, for all the current structures of MFS transporters, the first two helices of each of the four inverted-topology repeat units form half of either the periplasmic or cytoplasmic gate and that these function cooperatively in a scissor-like motion to control access to the peptide binding site during transport.

Graphical Abstract

Highlights

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  New higher-resolution structure of PepT _So

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  Salt bridges stabilizing outward-facing conformations are identified

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  The conserved prolines in helix 8 are shown to be important

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  The first two helices in each inverted-topology repeat form part of a gate

Abstract

Fowler et al. use biophysical and modeling approaches to identify salt bridges in two peptide transporters that stabilize their outward-facing conformations. Their results also suggest that the first two helices in each inverted-topology repeat unit forms part of either of the two gates.