How proteins are assigned to specific transporters

A fundamental cellular mechanism ensures that proteins are transported to the places they are needed in the cells. So-called vesicles are responsible for that transport. Determining their composition has been difficult up ...

New insight into unique sugar transport in plants

Sugar transport through sugar transport proteins (STP) is unique to plants, and is important for the proper development of plant organs such as pollen. STPs are also used to concentrate sugars in specific tissues like fruit, ...

Sea slug study illuminates how mitochondria move

Your cells have an amazing ability—they can build their own energy factories, called mitochondria. Once built, mitochondria must move where needed in the cell. Defects in mitochondrial transport are a suspected cause of ...

How does potassium enter cells?

For decades, it was assumed that protein channels and protein pumps fulfilled completely different functions and worked independently of each other. Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt and University Groningen have ...

Protein dynamics: Molecular machines at work

Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have used a special fluorescence-based imaging technique to track the shape changes that occur when pore proteins in the cell membrane export molecules into ...

Growing more food with less fertiliser

Researchers have found the key to increasing the rate at which maize absorbs nitrogen in the lab, a crucial step in growing higher yielding crops while using less fertiliser.

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