Project Details
Projekt
P1 – Disorder-function relationships in SLC26 transporters
Applicant
Professor Dr. Eric Geertsma
Subject Area
Anatomy and Physiology
Term
since 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426950122
The transmembrane gradients of chloride and bicarbonate represent a fundamental and general basis of cellular physiology. Anion transporters of the SLC26 family contribute significantly to their generation and maintenance, as has been extensively demonstrated by their causal involvement in various diseases. The extensive structural and biochemical exploration of the structured regions of SLC26 proteins has greatly improved our understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying transport. However, the role of the more intractable SLC26 domains of low complexity and high disorder, such as the N- and C-terminus and the intervening sequence in the STAS domain, which together can account for over 40% of the total protein mass, has been largely ignored. We expect that these unstructured regions contribute significantly to the function of SLC26 proteins, analogous to their relevance in soluble proteins. We thus aim to assign precise functional roles to the intrinsically disordered regions in SLC26 proteins.
DFG Programme
Research Units
