The Paracoccus denitrificans NarK-like nitrate and nitrite transporters—probing nitrate uptake and nitrate/nitrite exchange mechanisms

Alan D. Goddard, Shilpa Bali, Despoina A.I. Mavridou, Victor M. Luque-Almagro, Andrew J. Gates, M. Dolores Roldán, Simon Newstead, David J. Richardson, Stuart J. Ferguson*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Nitrate and nitrite transport across biological membranes is often facilitated by protein transporters that are members of the major facilitator superfamily. Paracoccus denitrificans contains an unusual arrangement whereby two of these transporters, NarK1 and NarK2, are fused into a single protein, NarK, which delivers nitrate to the respiratory nitrate reductase and transfers the product, nitrite, to the periplasm. Our complementation studies, using a mutant lacking the nitrate/proton symporter NasA from the assimilatory nitrate reductase pathway, support that NarK1 functions as a nitrate/proton symporter while NarK2 is a nitrate/nitrite antiporter. Through the same experimental system, we find that Escherichia coli NarK and NarU can complement deletions in both narK and nasA in P. denitrificans, suggesting that, while these proteins are most likely nitrate/nitrite antiporters, they can also act in the net uptake of nitrate. Finally, we argue that primary sequence analysis and structural modelling do not readily explain why NasA, NarK1 and NarK2, as well as other transporters from this protein family, have such different functions, ranging from net nitrate uptake to nitrate/nitrite exchange.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)117-133
Number of pages17
JournalMolecular Microbiology
Volume103
Issue number1
Early online date27 Oct 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2017

Bibliographical note

© 2016 The Authors. Molecular Microbiology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Funding: BBSRC (BBE0219991 and BBD5230191); Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (BIO2011-30026-C02-02); Royal Society and Wolfson Foundation for Merit Award Fellow; postdoctoral fellowship from
the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, Spain; MRC Career Development
Award (MR/M009505/1); Wellcome Trust (102890/Z/13/Z).

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