SLC45A4 encodes a peroxisomal putrescine transporter that promotes GABA de novo synthesis

Cecilia Colson, Yujue Wang, James Atherton, Nisha Rani Dahiya, Davood Kharaghani and Xiaoyang Su ()
Additional contact information
Cecilia Colson: Rutgers University, Department of Medicine, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Yujue Wang: Rutgers University, Department of Medicine, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
James Atherton: Rutgers University, Department of Medicine, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Nisha Rani Dahiya: Rutgers University, Department of Medicine, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Davood Kharaghani: Rutgers University, Department of Medicine, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Xiaoyang Su: Rutgers University, Department of Medicine, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Solute carriers (SLC) are membrane proteins that facilitate the transportation of ions and metabolites across either the plasma membrane or the membrane of intracellular organelles. With more than 450 human genes annotated as SLCs, many of them are still orphan transporters without known biochemical functions. We develop a metabolomic-transcriptomic association analysis, and we find that the expression of SLC45A4 has a strong positive correlation with the cellular level of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Using mass spectrometry and the stable isotope tracing approach, we demonstrate that SLC45A4 promotes GABA de novo synthesis through the Arginine/Ornithine/Putrescine (AOP) pathway. SLC45A4 functions as a putrescine transporter localized to the peroxisome membrane to facilitate GABA production. Taken together, our results reveal a biochemical mechanism where SLC45A4 controls GABA production.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62721-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-62721-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62721-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().