Membrane Channels and Transporters

Dear Colleagues,

Membrane channels facilitate passive solute and solvent transport across biomembranes and are of utmost physiological importance. Their selectivity, transport rate, and substrate size vary widely ranging from highly efficient and selective aquaporins or ion channels, which can accommodate only water molecules or ions in single-file fashion respectively, to large non-specific transmembrane pores such as porins and gasdermins. Transporters such as uniporters, symporters and antiporters, are responsible for active transport.

The rapid development of experimental and in silico methods such as cryoEM, MS, high speed AFM, super-resolution microscopy, electrophysiology and molecular dynamics simulations, to name a few, have recently brought new insight on diverse regulation mechanisms of membrane channel and transporter function. Growing attention is brought to the influence of the lipid bilayer on protein structure and function, including specific protein-lipid interactions and the mechanical parameters of the lipid matrix housing the respective membrane proteins. Thereby, new physical models appear which account for the membrane effect on the complex channel behaviour and suggest how conformational changes can be transferred between domains over large scales.

In this Special Issue, we want to focus on the recent achievements in the field and invite you to submit reviews and original research papers further advancing our knowledge on the structure, function, and regulation of membrane channels and transporters by in-vivo, in-vitro, or in-silico investigations. In this context, we will also consider methodological developments and advancements used to study membrane channels and transporters.

Dr. Andreas Horner
Dr. Denis G. Knyazev
Dr. Kristyna Pluhackova
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Membranes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.