水通道蛋白研究动态

Advances in Aquaporin Research.

水通道蛋白是对水专一的通道蛋白，它普遍存在于动、植物及微生物中，不同水通道蛋白之间具有类似特征．哺乳动物中水通道蛋白主要分为六类，分布于水分代谢活跃的器官中；植物除了质膜上水通道蛋白外，液泡膜也存在着水通道蛋白，它们在植物生长，发育及胁迫适应中起着重要作用．目前有关水通道蛋白的详细的结构和功能信息主要来自对红细胞膜上水通道蛋白的研究，它由同源的四聚体组成，每个单体具有独立的水通道功能，四聚体在膜上分布具有不对称性，在膜内侧四聚体呈伸展状态，在膜外侧形成大的中心空腔．

Aquaporins, water specific conducting channels, ubiquitously exist among animals, plants and microbes. There are six kinds of aquaporins in mammalian plasma membrane, which locate on the organs that participate actively in water metabolism. Plant aquaporins exist both in plasma membrane and tonoplast, which have a general role in regulating transmembrane water transport during the growth, development, and stress responses of plants. Most information about the structure and function of aquaporins comes from those researches on AQP1 that exists in erythrocyte membrane. Aquaporins assemble in the membrane as a homotetramer with each monomer having its individual water conducting function.The distribution of tetramer in membrane is unsymmetrical, which exhibits four protrusions in the inside surface of membrane and forms a large central cavity outside.