2.B.36. The Thiol-responsive Selenium-containing Transmembrane
Anion Transporter (TSTAT) Family

An anion transporter with a selenoxide group was able to form nanoparticles in water, whose activity was fully turned off due to the aggregation effect (Lang et al. 2016). The formed nanoparticles have a uniform size and can be readily dispersed in water at high concentrations. Turn-on of the nanoparticles by reducing molecules may be a combined process, including the reduction of selenoxide to selenide, disassembly of the nanoparticles, and location of the transporter to the lipid membrane. Accordingly, a special acceleration phase can be observed in the turn-on kinetic curves. Since turn-on of the nanoparticles is quantitatively related to the amount of reductant, the nanoparticles can be activated in a step-by-step manner. Due to the sensibility of this system to thiols, they can be detected at low nanomolar concentrations. This ultra-sensitive thiol-responsive transmembrane anion transport system has biological applications (Lang et al. 2016).