4ia4

Publication Abstract from PubMed

Plants have evolved to cope with fluctuations in water supply by gating their water channels known as aquaporins. During flooding, a rapid drop of cytosolic pH due to anoxia leads to a simultaneous closure of the aquaporins in the plasma membrane. The closing mechanism has been suggested to involve a conserved histidine on cytosolic loop D. Here we report the crystal structure of a spinach aquaporin at low pH, revealing for the first time the structural basis for how this pH-sensitive histidine helps to keep the aquaporin in a closed state.

Structural basis for pH gating of plant aquaporins.,Frick A, Jarva M, Tornroth-Horsefield S FEBS Lett. 2013 Apr 2;587(7):989-93. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2013.02.038. Epub, 2013 Feb 27. PMID:23454640^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.