In agreement with this hypothesis, members of the major facilitator superfamily show higher sequence similarity among their N-terminal halves than at their C-terminal moieties; it was proposed that the N-terminal

half of these carriers is essential for energization of transport, whereas the C-terminal half is involved in substrate specificity (Paulsen et al., 1996). Also, the finding of successive genes encoding N- CT99021 mw and C-terminal domains of a full-length CHR protein suggests a distinct function for each protein half (Nies et al., 1998). Random mutagenesis of the P. aeruginosa chrA gene, selecting for mutants that lost chromate resistance, revealed that most essential residues are located at the amino half of the protein (Aguilera et al., 2004). Moreover, phylogenetic analysis showed that sequences of N-terminal halves in 77 putative ChrA homologues are significantly more conserved than those from C-terminal domains (Díaz-Pérez et al., 2007). These data further suggest that the two halves of Chr3N/C proteins have different roles in their function as chromate transporters. It has been suggested that inverted topology in membrane transporters may be important for their function because it allows the arrangement of two conformational states (inward and outward) in a symmetric form

with respect to both sides of the membrane, because of the structural symmetry of each inverted repeat domain (Forrest & Rudnick, 2009; Radestock & Forrest, 2011). Moreover, it was proposed that inverted topology in small heterodimeric transporters, with fixed but opposite membrane learn more topology, may increase the stability of each monomer in the selleck screening library membrane by allowing formation of stable and functional heterodimers (Kolbusz et al., 2010). This work was supported by grants from Coordinación de Investigación Científica (UMSNH; 2.6), CONACYT (México; 79190), and Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico (UNAM; IN208510). R.M.-V. and G.R.-C. were supported by graduate and undergraduate student fellowships, respectively, from CONACYT. Please note: Wiley-Blackwell is not responsible for the

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“The gastrointestinal microbiota produces short-chain fatty acids, especially butyrate, which affect colonic health, immune function and epigenetic regulation. To assess the effects of nutrition and aging on the production of butyrate, the butyryl-CoA:acetate CoA-transferase gene and population shifts of Clostridium clusters lV and XlVa, the main butyrate producers, were analysed. Faecal samples of young healthy omnivores (24 ± 2.5 years), vegetarians (26 ± 5 years) and elderly (86 ± 8 years) omnivores were evaluated. Diet and lifestyle were assessed in questionnaire-based interviews.