TY - THES A1 - Kalayil, Sissy T1 - Insights into the mechanism of substrate/product antiport by CaiT N2 - During my thesis, I worked on two different membrane proteins. One is a bacterial secondary transporter and the second is a human mitochondrial calcium channel. The first part of my thesis involves the structural and biochemical characterization of an L-carnitine/ γ-butyrobetaine antiporter from bacteria called CaiT. The aim of the project was to understand the Na+ independence of CaiT and to determine the crystal structures of CaiT in different conformations to expand the mechanistic understanding of substrate/ product antiport in CaiT. The study revealed how a positively charged amino acid side chain (arginine 262) in CaiT could structurally and functionally mimic a sodium ion. Additionally, various crystal structures of CaiT obtained in this study demonstrate that the central substrate-binding site is highly dynamic and can accommodate the substrate in various orientations. In the second part of my thesis, I was able to optimize the expression and purification conditions for the human mitochondrial calcium uniporter or the MCU. Understanding how this channel functions can help us unravel the mechanism of calcium uptake by mitochondria. Secondary structure prediction analysis in combination with mass spectrometry of degraded MCU products obtained during the purification of the full-length protein led to the identification of a stable MCU construct. This study resulted in the successful purification of milligram quantities of stable MCU protein for the first time. Further optimization may be required to obtain more homogenous protein that is amenable for crystallization. Y1 - 2015 UR - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/39474 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-394746 CY - Frankfurt am Main ER -