Aquaporin

Water channel protein in cell membranes

Aquaporins, also called water channels, are channel proteins from a larger family of major intrinsic proteins that form pores in the membrane of biological cells, mainly facilitating transport of water between cells. The cell membranes of a variety of different bacteria, fungi, animal and plant cells contain aquaporins through which water can flow more rapidly into and out of the cell than by diffusing through the phospholipid bilayer. Aquaporins have six membrane-spanning alpha helical domains with both carboxylic and amino terminals on the cytoplasmic side. Two hydrophobic loops contain conserved asparagine–proline–alanine which form a barrel surrounding a central pore-like region that contains additional protein density. Because aquaporins are usually always open and are prevalent in just about every cell type, this leads to a misconception that water readily passes through the cell membrane down its concentration gradient. Water can pass through the cell membrane through simple diffusion because it is a small molecule, and through osmosis, in cases where the concentration of water outside of the cell is greater than that of the inside. However, because water is a polar molecule this process of simple diffusion is relatively slow, and in tissues with high water permeability the majority of water passes through aquaporin.

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