Pharmacogenomics of Membrane Transporters: An Overview

Membrane transporters play crucial roles in fundamental cellular functioning and normal physiological processes of archaebacteria, prokaryotes, and eukaryotes (1 ). Transporters are proteins that span the lipid bilayer and form a transmembrane channel lined with hydrophilic amino acid side chains. Membrane transporters are critical during the formation of electrochemical potentials, uptake of nutrients, removal of wastes, endocytotic internalization of macromolecules, and oxygen transport in respiration (2 ,3 ).