ArticleNature communications2016
Direct evidence of the molecular basis for biological silicon transport.
Article in Nature communications, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- NPF2 is involved in intracellular pH regulation and ion balance in the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Innovations in Silicon Transport Shaped the Rise of Biosilicification and Skeletal Evolution in Sponges.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- The evaluation of biogenic silica in brackish and freshwater strains reveals links between phylogeny and silica accumulation in picocyanobacteria.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- A bioinspired surface tension-driven route toward programmed cellular ceramics.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Characterization of the molecular mechanisms of silicon uptake in coccolithophores.Environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Diminished carbon and nitrate assimilation drive changes in diatom elemental stoichiometry independent of silicification in an iron-limited assemblage.ISME communications · 2022Article
- Lsi2: A black box in plant silicon transport.Plant and soil · 2021Review
- Physiological silicon incorporation into bone mineral requires orthosilicic acid metabolism to SiOJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2020Article
- Periodic and coordinated gene expression between a diazotroph and its diatom host.The ISME journal · 2019Article
- Blueprints for the Next Generation of Bioinspired and Biomimetic Mineralised Composites for Bone Regeneration.Marine drugs · 2018Review
- Energetic evolution of cellular Transportomes.BMC genomics · 2018Article
- A family of silicon transporter structural genes in a pennate diatom Synedra ulna subsp. danica (Kütz.) Skabitsch.PloS one · 2018Article
- Beyond the Michaelis-Menten equation: Accurate and efficient estimation of enzyme kinetic parameters.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- All New Faces of Diatoms: Potential Source of Nanomaterials and Beyond.Frontiers in microbiology · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Diatoms are an important group of eukaryotic algae with a curious evolutionary innovation: they sheath themselves in a cell wall made largely of silica. The cellular machinery responsible for silicification includes a family of membrane permeases that recognize and actively transport the soluble precursor of biosilica, silicic acid. However, the molecular basis of silicic acid transport remains obscure. Here, we identify experimentally tractable diatom silicic acid transporter (SIT) homologues and study their structure and function in vitro, enabled by the development of a new fluorescence method for studying substrate transport kinetics. We show that recombinant SITs are Na(+)/silicic acid symporters with a 1:1 protein: substrate stoichiometry and KM for silicic acid of 20 μM. Protein mutagenesis supports the long-standing hypothesis that four conserved GXQ amino acid motifs are important in SIT function. This marks a step towards a detailed understanding of silicon transport with implications for biogeochemistry and bioinspired materials.
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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.