Friday, 8 November 2019

biochemistry - ATP stoichiometry of the Na+/K+ pump


The Na+/K+ ATPase pump exports 3 Na+ for every 2 Ka+ imported. This process is ATP dependent, but I have not been able to find how many ATPs are required in each translocation. What is the stoichiometric ATP cost of this reaction?



Answer



Sodium/potassium-exchanging ATPase (EC 3.6.3.9):



An enzyme from the plasma membrane of animal cells that catalyzes the efflux of three Na(+) and influx of two K(+) per ATP hydrolyzed.



You can read about the mechanism on Wikipedia:






  • The pump, after binding ATP, binds 3 intracellular Na+ ions.




  • ATP is hydrolyzed, leading to phosphorylation of the pump at a highly conserved aspartate residue and subsequent release of ADP.




  • A conformational change in the pump exposes the Na+ ions to the outside. The phosphorylated form of the pump has a low affinity for Na+ ions, so they are released.





  • The pump binds 2 extracellular K+ ions. This causes the dephosphorylation of the pump, reverting it to its previous conformational state, transporting the K+ ions into the cell.




  • The unphosphorylated form of the pump has a higher affinity for Na+ ions than K+ ions, so the two bound K+ ions are released. ATP binds, and the process starts again.





No comments:

Post a Comment

evolution - Are there any multicellular forms of life which exist without consuming other forms of life in some manner?

The title is the question. If additional specificity is needed I will add clarification here. Are there any multicellular forms of life whic...