Low and high affinity amino acid H+-cotransporters for cellular import of neutral and charged amino acids.

Amides and acidic amino acids represent the major long distance transport forms of organic nitrogen. Six amino acid permeases (AAPs) from Arabidopsis mediating transport of a wide spectrum of amino acids were isolated. AAPs are distantly related to plasma membrane amino acid transport systems N and A and to vesicular transporters such as VGAT from mammals.