Nature Communications (Aug 2018)

Calcium is an essential cofactor for metal efflux by the ferroportin transporter family

  • Chandrika N. Deshpande,
  • T. Alex Ruwe,
  • Ali Shawki,
  • Vicky Xin,
  • Kyle R. Vieth,
  • Erika V. Valore,
  • Bo Qiao,
  • Tomas Ganz,
  • Elizabeta Nemeth,
  • Bryan Mackenzie,
  • Mika Jormakka

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05446-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Ferroportin (Fpn) is essential for mammalian iron homeostasis as it exports iron from cells into blood circulation, but the molecular mechanisms of Fpn-mediated iron transport remain obscure. Here the authors use biophysical approaches to reveal that Ca2+ is a required cofactor for Fpn transport activity.