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Transport proteins are responsible for the ongoing movement of substrates into and out of a biological cell. However, it is difficult to determine which substrates a specific protein can transport. Bioinformaticians at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have developed a model—called SPOT—that can predict this with a high degree of accuracy using artificial intelligence (AI).

The researchers present their approach, which can be used with arbitrary transport proteins, in the journal PLOS Biology.

Substrates in biological cells must be continuously transported inwards and outwards across the cell membrane to ensure the survival of the cells and enable them to perform their function. However, not all substrates that move through the body should be allowed to enter the cells. And some of these transport processes must be controllable so that they only occur at a particular time or under specific conditions in order to trigger a cell function.

The role of these active and specialized transport channels is assumed by so-called transport proteins (transporters), a wide variety of which are integrated into the cell membranes. A transport protein includes a large number of individual amino acids, which together form a complex three-dimensional structure.

Each transporter is tailored to a specific molecule—the so-called substrate—or a small group of substrates. But which, exactly? Researchers are constantly searching for matching transporter-substrate pairs.

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