of these ions inside the cell. Co2+ and Ni2+ have been shown to be transported by CorA by using radioactive tracer analysis, although with lower affinities (km) and velocities (Vmax) than for Mg2+ (see table). The km values for Co2+ and Ni2+ are significantly above those expected to be encountered by the cells in their normal environment, so it is unlikely that the CorA transport system mediates the uptake of these ions under natural conditions. To date, the evidence for Mn2+ transport by CorA is limited to E. coli. The table lists the transport kinetics of the CorA Mg2+ transport system. This table has been compiled from the publications of Snavely et al. (1989b), Gibson et al. (1991) and Smith et al. (1998a) and summarises the kinetic data for the CorA transport protein expressed from the wild type promoter in bacteria lacking MgtA and MgtB. km and Vmax were determined at 20 °C as the uptake of Mg2+ at 37 °C was too rapid to measure accurately. Recently the Mg2+-dependent fluorescence of mag-fura 2 was used to measure the free Mg2+ content of S. typhimurium cells in response to external Mg2+, which showed that CorA is the major uptake system for Mg2+ in bacteria. The authors also showed for the first time that the changes in the electric potential (ΔΨ) across the plasma membrane of the cell affected both the rate of Mg2+ uptake and the free Mg2+ content of the cell; depolarisation suppressed transport, while hyperpolarisation increased transport. The kinetics of transport were defined only by the rate of change of free Mg2+ inside the cells (250 μM s−1). Because no quantification of the amount of CorA protein in the membrane was made, this value cannot be compared with other experiments on Mg2+ transporters. The efflux of Mg2+ from bacterial cells was first observed by Lusk and Kennedy (1969) and is mediated by the CorA Mg2+ transport system in the presence of high extracellular concentrations of Mg2+. The efflux can also be triggered by Co2+, Mn2+ and Ni2+, although not to the same degree as Mg2+. No Co2+ efflux through the CorA transport system was observed. The process of Mg2+ efflux additionally requires one of the CorB, CorC or CorD genes. The mutation of any single one of these genes leads to a Co2+ resistance a little less than half of that provided by a CorA mutant. This effect