Glycine transporters (GlyTs) are plasmalemmal

neurotransmitter transporter Neurotransmitter transporters are a class of membrane transport proteins that span the cellular membranes of neurons. Their primary function is to carry neurotransmitters across these membranes and to direct their further transport to specific intr ...

s. They serve to terminate the signaling of

glycine Glycine (symbol Gly or G; ) is an amino acid that has a single hydrogen atom as its side chain. It is the simplest stable amino acid. Glycine is one of the proteinogenic amino acids. It is encoded by all the codons starting with GG (G ...

by mediating its

reuptake Reuptake is the reabsorption of a neurotransmitter by a neurotransmitter transporter located along the plasma membrane of an axon terminal (i.e., the pre-synaptic neuron at a synapse) or glial cell after it has performed its function of transmi ...

from the

synaptic cleft Chemical synapses are biological junctions through which neurons' signals can be sent to each other and to non-neuronal cells such as those in neuromuscular junction, muscles or glands. Chemical synapses allow neurons to form biological neural ...

back into the

presynaptic In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that allows a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another neuron or a target effector cell. Synapses can be classified as either chemical or electrical, depending o ...

neuron A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...

s. There are two glycine transporters:

glycine transporter 1 Sodium- and chloride-dependent glycine transporter 1, also known as glycine transporter 1, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''SLC6A9'' gene which is promising therapeutic target for treatment of diabetes and obesity. Selective inhi ...

(GlyT1) and

glycine transporter 2 Sodium- and chloride-dependent glycine transporter 2, also known as glycine transporter 2 (GlyT2), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''SLC6A5'' gene. The glycine transporter 2 is a membrane protein which recaptures glycine, a major ...

(GlyT2).

References

Membrane proteins Neurotransmitter transporters Solute carrier family {{membrane-protein-stub

See also

References