Adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT) also known as the ADP

Adenosine diphosphate

Adenosine diphosphate, abbreviated ADP, is a nucleoside diphosphate. It is an ester of pyrophosphoric acid with the nucleoside adenosine. ADP consists of the pyrophosphate group, the pentose sugar ribose, and the nucleobase adenine....

/ATP

Adenosine triphosphate

Adenosine-5'-triphosphate is a multifunctional nucleoside triphosphate used in cells as a coenzyme. It is often called the "molecular unit of currency" of intracellular energy transfer. ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism...

 translocator is a mitochondrial protein.

Function

ANT has long been thought to function asymmetrically as a homodimer of subunits in the inner mitochondrial membrane. The dimer was thought to be a gated pore through which ADP and ATP were exchanged between the mitochondrial matrix and the cytoplasm. The dimer hypothesis was first challenged when the three-dimensional structure of ANT was discovered to be a monomer. Further work has shown that ANT functions a monomer in detergents and in mitochondrial membranes.

Types

In humans, there exist three paraologous ANT isoforms

Protein isoform

A protein isoform is any of several different forms of the same protein. Different forms of a protein may be produced from related genes, or may arise from the same gene by alternative splicing. A large number of isoforms are caused by single-nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs, small genetic...

:

• SLC25A4
  SLC25A4
  ADP/ATP translocase 1 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the SLC25A4 gene.-Interactions:SLC25A4 has been shown to interact with Bcl-2-associated X protein.-Further reading:...
  
   – found primarily in heart and skeletal muscle – primarily expressed in fibroblast
  Fibroblast
  A fibroblast is a type of cell that synthesizes the extracellular matrix and collagen, the structural framework for animal tissues, and plays a critical role in wound healing...
  
  s
• SLC25A6
  SLC25A6
  ADP/ATP translocase 3 also known as solute carrier family 25 member 6 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC25A6 gene.Identical copies of this gene reside on the pseudoautosomal regions of the X and Y chromosomes....
  
  – primarily express in liver