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Molecular Mechanism of Water and Gas Transport Across Biological Membranes and Consequences for Plant Physiology

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Progress in Botany 71

Part of the book series: Progress in Botany ((BOTANY,volume 71))

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Abstract

Aquaporins are membrane proteins, facilitating the transport of water across biological membranes. At the time of their discovery, biological membranes were thought to be that permeable for water, that there was no need for proteins facilitating membrane water transport. In fact, the demonstration of aquaporin function was so groundbreaking, that in 2003 the Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to Peter Agre for his discovery of the aquaporins. Another property of certain aquaporins identified in recent years relates to facilitating membrane transport of gasses like CO2 or NH3. This function was also widely thought to be unnecessary, as membranes were believed to be permeable to gasses in general.

In plants, there are many processes where regulation of aquaporin expression and activity is very important. This chapter mainly focuses on involvement of plasma membrane intrinsic aquaporins. PIP1 and PIP2 isoforms are expressed in all parts or organs of the plant. All these differ in morphology and function, and therefore, in their requirement to membrane transport of water or CO2. A striking relevance of aquaporin expression and activity could not only be shown for processes, which are obviously depending on water or CO2, like root water uptake or photosynthesis, but also for plant reproduction, leaf movements, symbiosis, and other processes. Analyzing the role of aquaporins throughout the plant it appears, that in different organs the same type of aquaporin can perform different tasks. It seems that function of aquaporins can be modified according to the requirements of the tissue or organ where they are expressed. In the past, many different approaches to characterize aquaporins were adopted, highlighting a particular contribution of aquaporins on the level of molecules, cells, tissues or complete organisms, also including theoretical and computational analyses and modeling. The term “systems biology” was established to describe interdisciplinary studies on complex interactions in biological systems. The total work done in the field of aquaporins to date is a solid example of systems biology.

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  1. Institute of Botany, Norbert Uehlein, Darmstadt University of Technology, Schnittspahnstrasse 10, D-64287, Darmstadt, Germany

    Norbert Uehlein

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  1. Norbert Uehlein
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Correspondence to Norbert Uehlein .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Botanik, TU Darmstadt, Schnittspahnstr. 3-5, Darmstadt, 64287, Germany

    Ulrich Lüttge

  2. Fakultät für Biologie, LS für Experimentelle Ökologie, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

    Wolfram Beyschlag

  3. FB Biologie, Abt. Allgemeine Botanik, TU Kaiserslautern, Erwin-Schrödinger-Str., Kaiserslautern, 67663, Germany

    Burkhard Büdel

  4. Cardiff School of Biosciences, University of Cardiff, Cardiff, United Kingdom

    Dennis Francis

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Uehlein, N. (2010). Molecular Mechanism of Water and Gas Transport Across Biological Membranes and Consequences for Plant Physiology. In: Lüttge, U., Beyschlag, W., Büdel, B., Francis, D. (eds) Progress in Botany 71. Progress in Botany, vol 71. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02167-1_9

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