ArticleNature2012
The molecular basis of phosphate discrimination in arsenate-rich environments.
Article in Nature, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 75 papers.
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Who cites it
75 citing papers in PubMed, 217 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Thr/Ser-centered phosphate-binding triad of phosphate-binding protein SphX from Synechocystis.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Environmental Contributions to Proton Sharing in Protein Low-Barrier Hydrogen Bonds.Biochemistry · 2026Article
- Supramolecular Binding and Extraction of Phosphate, Phosphite and Fluorophosphate Anions from Water by Nanojars.Inorganic chemistry · 2026Article
- Molecular mechanism of phosphate import by the bacterial PstSCAB transporter.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Methanogenesis couples with arsenic methylation in urban interface biofilms under arsenic-phosphorus decoupling stress.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Environmental Contributions to Proton Sharing in Protein Low-Barrier Hydrogen Bonds.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Probing the anion binding promiscuity of the soluble nitrate sensor NreA from Staphylococcus carnosus.Communications chemistry · 2025Article
- A battle against arsenic toxicity by Earth's earliest complex life forms.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics interventions prompt crop improvement against metal(loid) toxicity.Plant cell reports · 2024Review
- Blooming of a microbial community in an Ediacaran extreme volcanic lake system.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Two-Dimensional Mapping of Arsenic Concentration and Speciation with Diffusive Equilibrium in Thin-Film Gels.Environmental science & technology · 2023Article
- The elements of life: A biocentric tour of the periodic table.Advances in microbial physiology · 2023Article
- General Theory of Specific Binding: Insights from a Genetic-Mechano-Chemical Protein Model.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Mapping periplasmic binding protein oligosaccharide recognition with neutron crystallography.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Are cysteine, glutathione and phytochelatins responses of Myriophyllum alterniflorum to copper and arsenic stress affected by trophic conditions?Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2022Article
- Neutron crystallography reveals mechanisms used by Pseudomonas aeruginosa for host-cell binding.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Arsenic perception and signaling: The yet unexplored world.Frontiers in plant science · 2022Review
- Efficiency of arsenic remediation from growth medium through Bacillus licheniformis modulated by phosphate (POArchives of microbiology · 2021Article
- Chain Entropy Beats Hydrogen Bonds to Unfold and Thread Dialcohol Phosphates inside Cyanostar Macrocycles To Form [3]Pseudorotaxanes.The Journal of organic chemistry · 2021Article
- Molecular Mechanisms of Phosphate Sensing, Transport and Signalling in Streptomyces and Related Actinobacteria.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
15 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Arsenate and phosphate are abundant on Earth and have striking similarities: nearly identical pK(a) values, similarly charged oxygen atoms, and thermochemical radii that differ by only 4% (ref. 3). Phosphate is indispensable and arsenate is toxic, but this extensive similarity raises the question whether arsenate may substitute for phosphate in certain niches. However, whether it is used or excluded, discriminating phosphate from arsenate is a paramount challenge. Enzymes that utilize phosphate, for example, have the same binding mode and kinetic parameters as arsenate, and the latter's presence therefore decouples metabolism. Can proteins discriminate between these two anions, and how would they do so? In particular, cellular phosphate uptake systems face a challenge in arsenate-rich environments. Here we describe a molecular mechanism for this process. We examined the periplasmic phosphate-binding proteins (PBPs) of the ABC-type transport system that mediates phosphate uptake into bacterial cells, including two PBPs from the arsenate-rich Mono Lake Halomonas strain GFAJ-1. All PBPs tested are capable of discriminating phosphate over arsenate at least 500-fold. The exception is one of the PBPs of GFAJ-1 that shows roughly 4,500-fold discrimination and its gene is highly expressed under phosphate-limiting conditions. Sub-ångström-resolution structures of Pseudomonas fluorescens PBP with both arsenate and phosphate show a unique mode of binding that mediates discrimination. An extensive network of dipole-anion interactions, and of repulsive interactions, results in the 4% larger arsenate distorting a unique low-barrier hydrogen bond. These features enable the phosphate transport system to bind phosphate selectively over arsenate (at least 10(3) excess) even in highly arsenate-rich environments.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.