Abstract
Aquaporins are a family of ubiquitous membrane proteins that form a pore for the permeation of water. Both electron and X-ray crystallography played major roles in determining the atomic structures of a number of aquaporins. This review focuses on electron crystallography, and its contribution to the field of aquaporin biology. We briefly discuss electron crystallography and the two-dimensional crystallization process. We describe features of aquaporins common to both electron and X-ray crystallographic structures; as well as some structural insights unique to electron crystallography, including aquaporin junction formation and lipid-protein interactions.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 430-436 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | IUBMB Life |
Volume | 60 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2008 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Aquaporin
- Channel
- Electron crystallography
- Lipid-protein interactions
- Membrane junction
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biochemistry
- Molecular Biology
- Genetics
- Clinical Biochemistry
- Cell Biology