Aquaporins: Multifunctional Players in Plant Growth, Development and Stress Responses

Aquaporins are small membrane proteins belonging to the group of Major Intrinsic proteins (MIPs) that facilitate the transport of water and small molecules across biological membranes. They were initially identified as water channels and later it has become clear that they also play important roles...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Silva Balcanica (Sofia) 2024-05, Vol.25 (1), p.73-86
Main Authors: Hewawitharanage, Hasini, Sarvananda, Letchuman
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquaporins
Biological membranes
biotic stress
Channel gating
development
Environmental factors
Growth
growth and development
Membrane proteins
Membranes
Physiological aspects
Physiology
Plant growth
plasma membrane
Proteins
solutes
Stress response
tonoplast
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Aquaporins are small membrane proteins belonging to the group of Major Intrinsic proteins (MIPs) that facilitate the transport of water and small molecules across biological membranes. They were initially identified as water channels and later it has become clear that they also play important roles in several other physiological processes in plants. Plants have different types of aquaporins in terms of their location, gating properties, and solute specificity and can mainly divide into four major subfamilies. They are tonoplast intrinsic proteins (TIPs), nodulin26-like intrinsic proteins (NIPs), plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs), and the small basic intrinsic proteins (SIPs). All these aquaporins play a variety of physiological activities at all stages of plant growth and development. Also, they are believed to play a significant part in the plant's defense mechanisms against biotic and abiotic stresses. This review comprehensively addresses the roles of diverse aquaporin homologs in growth and development and their response to different environmental factors.
ISSN:1311-8706
2815-2549
2815-2549
DOI:10.3897/silvabalcanica.25.e117347