Neurotransmitter:sodium symporters (NSS) use energy derived from sodium gradients to power transport of their respective neurotransmitters. But, whereas most eukaryotic NSS transporters are chloride-dependent, the prokaryotic homologue LeuT is not. Structural and mechanistic knowledge of LeuT, and a chloride transporter from an entirely different family, is applied to mammalian NSS transporters and finds that transported chloride ions serve to neutralise the positive charge carried by the sodium ions.
- Elia Zomot
- Annie Bendahan
- Baruch I. Kanner
