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Aquaporin-0 membrane junctions reveal the structure of a closed water pore
Structural highlights
FunctionMIP_SHEEP Water channel. May be responsible for regulating the osmolarity of the lens. Interactions between homotetramers from adjoining membranes may stabilize cell junctions in the eye lens core.[1] [2] [3] Evolutionary Conservation Check, as determined by ConSurfDB. You may read the explanation of the method and the full data available from ConSurf. Publication Abstract from PubMedThe lens-specific water pore aquaporin-0 (AQP0) is the only aquaporin known to form membrane junctions in vivo. We show here that AQP0 from the lens core, containing some carboxy-terminally cleaved AQP0, forms double-layered crystals that recapitulate in vivo junctions. We present the structure of the AQP0 membrane junction as determined by electron crystallography. The junction is formed by three localized interactions between AQP0 molecules in adjoining membranes, mainly mediated by proline residues conserved in AQP0s from different species but not present in most other aquaporins. Whereas all previously determined aquaporin structures show the pore in an open conformation, the water pore is closed in AQP0 junctions. The water pathway in AQP0 also contains an additional pore constriction, not seen in other known aquaporin structures, which may be responsible for pore gating. Aquaporin-0 membrane junctions reveal the structure of a closed water pore.,Gonen T, Sliz P, Kistler J, Cheng Y, Walz T Nature. 2004 May 13;429(6988):193-7. PMID:15141214[4] From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. See AlsoReferences
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