P-type ATPases account for a major proportion of energy consumption in the cell by maintaining electrochemical gradients for key cations and heavy metals as well as asymmetric distributions of lipids in bilayer membranes. They represent a long history of biochemical and biophysical research, but the field is also embracing novel approaches to expand our knowledge of their mechanism of action and of the integration of their function into advanced networks that define molecular physiology, behavior and disease.
