Zinc transporters and their functional integration in mammalian cells

Kambe, Taiho, Taylor, Kathryn M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9576-9490 and Fu, Dax 2021. Zinc transporters and their functional integration in mammalian cells. Journal of Biological Chemistry 296 , 100320. 10.1016/j.jbc.2021.100320

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Abstract

Zinc is a ubiquitous biological metal in all living organisms. The spatiotemporal zinc dynamics in cells provide crucial cellular signaling opportunities, but also challenges intracellular zinc homeostasis with broad disease implications. Zinc transporters play a central role in regulating cellular zinc balance and subcellular zinc distributions. The discoveries of two complementary families of mammalian zinc transporters (ZnTs and ZIPs) in the mid-1990s spurred much speculation on their metal selectivity and cellular functions. After two decades of research, we have arrived at a biochemical description of zinc transport. However, in vitro functions are fundamentally different from those in living cells, where mammalian zinc transporters are directed to specific subcellular locations, engaged in dedicated macromolecular machineries and connected with diverse cellular processes. Hence, the molecular functions of individual zinc transporters are reshaped and deeply integrated in cells to promote the utilization of zinc chemistry to perform enzymatic reactions, tune cellular responsiveness to pathophysiologic signals and safeguard cellular homeostasis. At present, the underlying mechanisms driving the functional integration of mammalian zinc transporters are largely unknown. This knowledge gap has motivated a shift of the research focus from in vitro studies of purified zinc transporters to in cell studies of mammalian zinc transporters in the context of their subcellular locations and protein interactions. In this review, we will outline how knowledge of zinc transporters has been accumulated from in-test-tube to in-cell studies, highlighting new insights and paradigm shifts in our understanding of the molecular and cellular basis of mammalian zinc transporter functions.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Pharmacy
Additional Information:	This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Publisher:	American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
ISSN:	0021-9258
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	8 February 2021
Date of Acceptance:	20 January 2021
Last Modified:	04 May 2023 08:25
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/138351

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