Lactose permease of Escherichia coli (LacY) is highly dynamic, and sugar binding causes closing of a large inward-facing cavity with opening of a wide outward-facing hydrophilic cavity. Therefore, lactose/H(+) symport via LacY very likely involves a global conformational change that allows alternating access of single sugar- and H(+)-binding sites to either side of the membrane. Here, in honor of Stephan H. White's seventieth birthday, we review in camera the various biochemical/biophysical approaches that provide experimental evidence for the alternating access mechanism.
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Kaback et al. (2010) studied this question.
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