The Telescope Array (TA) experiment, located in the western desert of
Utah,USA, is designed for observation of extensive air showers from extremely
high energy cosmic rays. The experiment has a surface detector array surrounded
by three fluorescence detectors to enable simultaneous detection of shower
particles at ground level and fluorescence photons along the shower track. The
TA surface detectors and fluorescence detectors started full hybrid observation
in March, 2008. In this article we describe the design and technical features
of the TA surface detector.Comment: 32 pages, 17 figure
Mulitidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) family transporters export xenobiotics to maintain cellular homeostasis. The human MATE transporters mediate the excretion of xenobiotics and cationic clinical drugs, whereas some plant MATE transporters are responsible for aluminum tolerance and secondary metabolite transport. Here we report the crystal structure of the eukaryotic MATE transporter from Arabidopsis thaliana, at 2.6 Å resolution. The structure reveals that its carboxy-terminal lobe (C-lobe) contains an extensive hydrogen-bonding network with well-conserved acidic residues, and their importance is demonstrated by the structure-based mutational analysis. The structural and functional analyses suggest that the transport mechanism involves the structural change of transmembrane helix 7, induced by the formation of a hydrogen-bonding network upon the protonation of the conserved acidic residue in the C-lobe. Our findings provide insights into the transport mechanism of eukaryotic MATE transporters, which is important for the improvement of the pharmacokinetics of the clinical drugs.
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