Mechanism of Substrate Translocation in an Alternating Access Transporter

Highlights•Crystal structure of SemiSWEET in an outward-open state with glucose bound•Unguided MD simulations capture spontaneous outward-open to inward-open transitions•Gates driven to open only in occluded state, preventing their simultaneous opening•Simulations with and without substrate visit closely matching conformational statesSummaryTransporters shuttle molecules across cell membranes by alternating among distinct conformational states....