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Tricarboxylate transport protein, mitochondrial

Tricarboxylate transport protein, mitochondrial, also known as tricarboxylate carrier protein and citrate transport protein (CTP), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC25A1 gene. SLC25A1 belongs to the mitochondrial carrier gene family SLC25. High levels of the tricarboxylate transport protein are found in the liver, pancreas and kidney. Lower or no levels are present in the brain, heart, skeletal muscle, placenta and lung.

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Jul 20, 2026
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Wikipedia ↗
SLC25A1
Identifiers
AliasesSLC25A1, CTP, D2L2AD, SEA, SLC20A3, solute carrier family 25 member 1, CMS23
External IDsOMIM: 190315; MGI: 1345283; HomoloGene: 136551; GeneCards: SLC25A1; OMA:SLC25A1 - orthologs
Orthologs
SpeciesHumanMouse
Entrez

6576

13358

Ensembl

ENSG00000100075

ENSMUSG00000003528

UniProt

P53007

Q8JZU2

RefSeq (mRNA)

NM_001256534
NM_001287387
NM_005984

NM_153150

RefSeq (protein)

NP_001243463
NP_001274316
NP_005975
NP_001243463.1
NP_001274316.1

NP_694790

Location (UCSC)Chr 22: 19.18 – 19.18 MbChr 16: 17.74 – 17.75 Mb
PubMed search34
Wikidata
View/Edit HumanView/Edit Mouse

Tricarboxylate transport protein, mitochondrial, also known as tricarboxylate carrier protein and citrate transport protein (CTP), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC25A1 gene.5678 SLC25A1 belongs to the mitochondrial carrier gene family SLC25.91011 High levels of the tricarboxylate transport protein are found in the liver, pancreas and kidney. Lower or no levels are present in the brain, heart, skeletal muscle, placenta and lung.911

The tricarboxylate transport protein is located within the inner mitochondria membrane. It provides a link between the mitochondrial matrix and cytosol by transporting citrate through the impermeable inner mitochondrial membrane in exchange for malate from the cytosol.9101112 The citrate transported out of the mitochondrial matrix by the tricarboxylate transport protein is catalyzed by citrate lyase to acetyl CoA, the starting material for fatty acid biosynthesis, and oxaloacetate.10 As well, cytosolic NADPH + H+ necessary for fatty acid biosynthesis is generated in the reduction of oxaloacetate to malate and pyruvate by malate dehydrogenase and the malic enzyme.111314 For these reasons, the tricarboxylate transport protein is considered to play a key role in fatty acid synthesis.10

Structure

A 3D cartoon depiction of the tripartite structure of a mitochondrial transport protein, generated from 23CE bovine mitochondrial ADP-ATP carrier source ↗
A zoomed in image of the C and N termini and the two loops linking the repeated domains on the cytoplasmic side of the inner mitochondrial membrane. source ↗
A zoomed in image of the three loops linking the two α-helices of each repeated domain located on the matrix side of the membrane. source ↗

The structure of the tricarboxylate transport protein is consistent with the structures of other mitochondrial carriers.91012 In particular, the tricarboxylate transport protein has a tripartite structure consisting of three repeated domains that are approximately 100 amino acids in length.912 Each repeat forms a transmembrane domain consisting of two hydrophobic α-helices.91015 The amino and carboxy termini are located on the cytosolic side of the inner mitochondrial membrane.910 Each domain is linked by two hydrophilic loops located on the cytosolic side of the membrane.9101516 The two α-helices of each repeated domain are connected by hydrophilic loops located on the matrix side of the membrane.91016 A salt bridge network is present on both the matrix side and cytoplasmic side of the tricarboxylate transport protein.16

Transport mechanism

The tricarboxylate transport protein exists in two states: a cytoplasmic state where it accepts malate from the cytoplasm and a matrix state where it accepts citrate from the mitochondrial matrix.17 A single binding site is present near the center of the cavity of the tricarboxylate transport protein, which can be either exposed to the cytosol or the mitochondrial matrix depending on the state.151617 A substrate induced conformational change occurs when citrate enters from the matrix side and binds to the central cavity of the tricarboxylate transport protein.9 This conformational change opens a gate on the cytosolic side and closes the gate on the matrix side.9 Likewise, when malate enters from the cytosolic side, the matrix gate opens and the cytosolic gate closes.9 Each side of the transporter is open and closed by the disruption and formation of the salt bridge networks, which allows access to the single binding site.1516171819

Disease relevance

Mutations in this gene have been associated with the inborn error of metabolism combined D-2- and L-2-hydroxyglutaric aciduria,20 which was the first reported case of a pathogenic mutation of the SLC25A1 gene.1621 Patients with D-2/L-2-hydroxyglutaric aciduria display neonatal onset metabolic encephalopathy, infantile epilepsy, global developmental delay, muscular hypotonia and early death.162122 It is believed low levels of citrate in the cytosol and high levels of citrate in the mitochondria caused by the impaired citrate transport plays a role in the disease.1622 In addition, increased expression of the tricarboxylate transport protein has been linked to cancer112324 and the production of inflammatory mediators.252627 Therefore, it has been suggested that inhibition of the tricarboxylate transport protein may have a therapeutic effect in chronic inflammation diseases and cancer.26

See also

See also

References

References

  1. GRCh38: Ensembl release 89: ENSG00000100075 – Ensembl, May 2017
  2. GRCm38: Ensembl release 89: ENSMUSG00000003528 – Ensembl, May 2017
  3. "Human PubMed Reference:". National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
  4. "Mouse PubMed Reference:". National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
  5. Heisterkamp N, Mulder MP, Langeveld A, ten Hoeve J, Wang Z, Roe BA, et al. (September 1995). "Localization of the human mitochondrial citrate transporter protein gene to chromosome 22Q11 in the DiGeorge syndrome critical region". Genomics. 29 (2): 451–456. doi:10.1006/geno.1995.9982. PMID 8666394.
  6. Iacobazzi V, Lauria G, Palmieri F (September 1997). "Organization and sequence of the human gene for the mitochondrial citrate transport protein". DNA Sequence. 7 (3–4): 127–139. doi:10.3109/10425179709034029. PMID 9254007.
  7. Dolce V, Cappello AR, Capobianco L (September 1997). "Mitochondrial tricarboxylate and dicarboxylate-tricarboxylate carriers: from animals to plants". IUBMB Life. 66 (7): 462–471. doi:10.1002/iub.1290. PMID 25045044.
  8. "Entrez Gene: SLC25A1 solute carrier family 25 (mitochondrial carrier; citrate transporter), member 1".
  9. Palmieri F (April 2013). "The mitochondrial transporter family SLC25: identification, properties and physiopathology". Molecular Aspects of Medicine. 34 (2–3): 465–484. doi:10.1016/j.mam.2012.05.005. PMID 23266187.
  10. Palmieri F (February 2004). "The mitochondrial transporter family (SLC25): physiological and pathological implications". Pflügers Archiv: European Journal of Physiology. 447 (5): 689–709. doi:10.1007/s00424-003-1099-7. PMID 14598172. S2CID 25304722.
  11. Iacobazzi V, Infantino V, Palmieri F (January 2013). "Transcriptional Regulation of the Mitochondrial Citrate and Carnitine/Acylcarnitine Transporters: Two Genes Involved in Fatty Acid Biosynthesis and β-oxidation". Biology. 2 (1): 284–303. doi:10.3390/biology2010284. PMC 4009865. PMID 24832661.
  12. Berg JM, Tymoczko JL, Gatto GJ, Stryer L (2015). Biochemistry. New York: W.H. Freeman & Company. p. 551. ISBN 978-1-4641-2610-9.
  13. Voet D, Voet JG, Pratt CW (2016). Fundamentals of Biochemistry. U.S.A.: Wiley. pp. 687–688. ISBN 978-1-118-91840-1.
  14. Nelson DL, Cox MM (2017). Principles of Biochemistry. New York: W.H. Freeman & Company. pp. 818–819. ISBN 978-1-4641-2611-6.
  15. King MS, Kerr M, Crichton PG, Springett R, Kunji ER (January 2016). "Formation of a cytoplasmic salt bridge network in the matrix state is a fundamental step in the transport mechanism of the mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics. 1857 (1): 14–22. doi:10.1016/j.bbabio.2015.09.013. PMC 4674015. PMID 26453935.
  16. Majd H, King MS, Smith AC, Kunji ER (January 2018). "Pathogenic mutations of the human mitochondrial citrate carrier SLC25A1 lead to impaired citrate export required for lipid, dolichol, ubiquinone and sterol synthesis". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics. 1859 (1): 1–7. doi:10.1016/j.bbabio.2017.10.002. PMID 29031613.
  17. Robinson AJ, Kunji ER (February 2006). "Mitochondrial carriers in the cytoplasmic state have a common substrate binding site". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 103 (8): 2617–2622. Bibcode:2006PNAS..103.2617R. doi:10.1073/pnas.0509994103. PMC 1413793. PMID 16469842.
  18. Robinson AJ, Overy C, Kunji ER (November 2008). "The mechanism of transport by mitochondrial carriers based on analysis of symmetry". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 105 (46): 17766–17771. Bibcode:2008PNAS..10517766R. doi:10.1073/pnas.0809580105. PMC 2582046. PMID 19001266.
  19. Kunji ER, Robinson AJ (September 2006). "The conserved substrate binding site of mitochondrial carriers". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics. 1757 (9–10): 1237–1248. doi:10.1016/j.bbabio.2006.03.021. PMID 16759636.
  20. Nota B, Struys EA, Pop A, Jansen EE, Fernandez Ojeda MR, Kanhai WA, et al. (April 2013). "Deficiency in SLC25A1, encoding the mitochondrial citrate carrier, causes combined D-2- and L-2-hydroxyglutaric aciduria". American Journal of Human Genetics. 92 (4): 627–631. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2013.03.009. PMC 3617390. PMID 23561848.
  21. Hoffmann GF, Köckler S (2016). "Cerebral Organic Acid Disorders and Other Disorders of Lysine Catabolism". In Saudubray JM, Baumgartner M, Walter J (eds.). Inborn Metabolic Diseases. Germany: Springer. p. 344. ISBN 978-3-662-49771-5.
  22. Cohen I, Staretz-Chacham O, Wormser O, Perez Y, Saada A, Kadir R, et al. (February 2018). "A novel homozygous SLC25A1 mutation with impaired mitochondrial complex V: Possible phenotypic expansion". American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part A. 176 (2): 330–336. doi:10.1002/ajmg.a.38574. PMID 29226520. S2CID 6953669.
  23. Jiang L, Boufersaoui A, Yang C, Ko B, Rakheja D, Guevara G, et al. (September 2017). "Quantitative metabolic flux analysis reveals an unconventional pathway of fatty acid synthesis in cancer cells deficient for the mitochondrial citrate transport protein". Metabolic Engineering. 43 (Pt B): 198–207. doi:10.1016/j.ymben.2016.11.004. PMC 5429990. PMID 27856334.
  24. Poolsri WA, Phokrai P, Suwankulanan S, Phakdeeto N, Phunsomboon P, Pekthong D, et al. (2018). "Combination of Mitochondrial and Plasma Membrane Citrate Transporter Inhibitors Inhibits De Novo Lipogenesis Pathway and Triggers Apoptosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells". BioMed Research International. 2018 3683026. doi:10.1155/2018/3683026. PMC 5818947. PMID 29546056.
  25. Infantino V, Convertini P, Cucci L, Panaro MA, Di Noia MA, Calvello R, et al. (September 2011). "The mitochondrial citrate carrier: a new player in inflammation". The Biochemical Journal. 438 (3): 433–436. doi:10.1042/BJ20111275. hdl:11563/18487. PMID 21787310.
  26. Infantino V, Iacobazzi V, Menga A, Avantaggiati ML, Palmieri F (November 2014). "A key role of the mitochondrial citrate carrier (SLC25A1) in TNFα- and IFNγ-triggered inflammation". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Gene Regulatory Mechanisms. 1839 (11): 1217–1225. doi:10.1016/j.bbagrm.2014.07.013. PMC 4346166. PMID 25072865.
  27. Palmieri EM, Spera I, Menga A, Infantino V, Porcelli V, Iacobazzi V, et al. (August 2015). "Acetylation of human mitochondrial citrate carrier modulates mitochondrial citrate/malate exchange activity to sustain NADPH production during macrophage activation". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics. 1847 (8): 729–738. doi:10.1016/j.bbabio.2015.04.009. PMID 25917893.
Further reading

Further reading

This article incorporates text from the United States National Library of Medicine, which is in the public domain.