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Membrane glycine transport proteins

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Journal of Biomedical Science

Abstract

Structurally, the simplest amino acid is glycine, and it has a number of important yet distinct functions in the body. This review focuses on the different transport systems and the associated carrier proteins for glycine that are responsible for its movement across biological membranes. Transport proteins in the class GLYT appear to be the most specific for glycine. However, the B0+ system also carries significant amounts of glycine. Other amino acid transport systems capable of carrying small amounts of glycine are ASC, asc and system L. In addition, an ATP-dependent transport process exists that takes up glycine into synaptic vesicles at nerve endings. This is known as the vesicular inhibitory amino acid transporter since, in addition to glycine, it can transport possibly two other inhibitory neurotransmitters.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Indiana Univeristy School of Medicine, 8600 University Boulevard, 47712, Evansville, IN, USA

    Godfrey Tunnicliff

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Tunnicliff, G. Membrane glycine transport proteins. J Biomed Sci 10, 30–36 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02255994

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