Structural basis for alternating access of a eukaryotic calcium/proton exchanger.
Waight, A.B., Pedersen, B.P., Schlessinger, A., Bonomi, M., Chau, B.H., Roe-Zurz, Z., Risenmay, A.J., Sali, A., Stroud, R.M.(2013) Nature 499: 107-110
- PubMed: 23685453 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12233
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
4K1C - PubMed Abstract: 
Eukaryotic Ca(2+) regulation involves sequestration into intracellular organelles, and expeditious Ca(2+) release into the cytosol is a hallmark of key signalling transduction pathways. Bulk removal of Ca(2+) after such signalling events is accomplished by members of the Ca(2+):cation (CaCA) superfamily. The CaCA superfamily includes the Na(+)/Ca(2+) (NCX) and Ca(2+)/H(+) (CAX) antiporters, and in mammals the NCX and related proteins constitute families SLC8 and SLC24, and are responsible for the re-establishment of Ca(2+) resting potential in muscle cells, neuronal signalling and Ca(2+) reabsorption in the kidney. The CAX family members maintain cytosolic Ca(2+) homeostasis in plants and fungi during steep rises in intracellular Ca(2+) due to environmental changes, or following signal transduction caused by events such as hyperosmotic shock, hormone response and response to mating pheromones. The cytosol-facing conformations within the CaCA superfamily are unknown, and the transport mechanism remains speculative. Here we determine a crystal structure of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae vacuolar Ca(2+)/H(+) exchanger (Vcx1) at 2.3 Å resolution in a cytosol-facing, substrate-bound conformation. Vcx1 is the first structure, to our knowledge, within the CAX family, and it describes the key cytosol-facing conformation of the CaCA superfamily, providing the structural basis for a novel alternating access mechanism by which the CaCA superfamily performs high-throughput Ca(2+) transport across membranes.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, California 94158, USA.