Plants synthesize amino acids by collateral metabolic pathways using primary elements carbon and oxygen from air, hydrogen from water in soil and nitrogen from soil. Following synthesis, amino acids are immediately used for metabolism, transient storage or transported to the phloem. Different families of transporters have been identified for import of amino acids into plant cells. The first identified amino acid transporter, amino acid permease 1 (AAP1) in Arabidopsis belongs to a family of eight members and transports acidic, neutral, and basic amino acids. Legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen through a symbiotic relationship with root nodules bacteria. Following fixation, nitrogen is reduced to amino acids and is exported via different amino acid transporters. However, information is lacking about the structure of these important classes of amino acid transporter proteins in plant. We have amplified AAP from Phaseolus vulgaris, an economically important leguminous plant grown all over the world, and sequenced. The sequence has been characterized in silico and a three-dimensional structure of AAP has been predicted and validated. The information obtained not only enhances the knowledge about the structure of an amino acid permease gene in P. vulgaris, but will also help in designing protein-ligand studies using this protein as well.

中文翻译：

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普通豆（Phaseolus vulgaris L.）中氨基酸通透酶基因的分子克隆和蛋白质的结构表征。

植物利用主要的元素通过空气中的碳和氧，土壤中的水和氢以及土壤中的氮，通过附带的代谢途径合成氨基酸。合成后，氨基酸立即用于新陈代谢，瞬时存储或转运至韧皮部。已经鉴定出不同的转运蛋白家族，用于将氨基酸导入植物细胞。拟南芥中第一个鉴定出的氨基酸转运蛋白，氨基酸通透酶1（AAP1）属于8个成员，可转运酸性，中性和碱性氨基酸。豆科植物通过与根瘤细菌共生关系修复大气中的氮。固定后，氮还原为氨基酸，并通过不同的氨基酸转运蛋白输出。然而，缺少有关植物中这些重要氨基酸转运蛋白的结构的信息。我们已经从菜豆中扩增了AAP，该菜豆是一种在世界范围内生长的具有经济意义的豆科植物，并进行了测序。该序列已在计算机上进行了表征，并预测和验证了AAP的三维结构。所获得的信息不仅增强了关于寻常型毕赤酵母中氨基酸通透酶基因结构的知识，而且还将有助于设计使用该蛋白质的蛋白质配体研究。