The Aribidopsis nitrate transporter, NRT1.1, was the first eukaryotic member of the SLC15 family to be crystallised. We were interested in understanding how this distant homologue of the mammalian proteins, PepT1 and PepT2, had adapted to recognising nitrate instead of peptides. We also revealed an interesting mechanism for a phosphorylation driven kinetic switch that helps plants to respond to fluctuating environmental nitrate levels.
Published in Nature 2014.