This region is the integral membrane part of the eubacterial MgtE family of magnesium transporters. Related regions are found also in archaebacterial and eukaryotic proteins. All the archaebacterial and eukaryotic examples have two copies of the region. This suggests that the eubacterial examples may act as dimers. Members of this family probably transport Mg2+ or other divalent cations into the cell. The alignment contains two highly conserved aspartates that may be involved in cation binding (Bateman A unpubl.)

1: Cloning and characterization of MgtE, a putative new class of Mg2+ transporter from Bacillus firmus OF4. Smith RL, Thompson LJ, Maguire ME; J Bacteriol 1995;177:1233-1238. PMID:7868596

2: Cloning of the mgtE Mg2+ transporter from Providencia stuartii and the distribution of mgtE in gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Townsend DE, Esenwine AJ, George J 3rd, Bross D, Maguire ME, Smith RL; J Bacteriol 1995;177:5350-5354. PMID:7665526