Advances in functional regulation mechanisms of plant aquaporins: Their diversity, gene expression, localization, structure and roles in plant soil-water relations (Review)

Abstract

Aquaporins are important molecules that control the moisture level of cells and water flow in plants. Plant aquaporins are present in various tissues, and play roles in water transport, cell differentiation and cell enlargement involved in plant growth and water relations. The insights into aquaporins' diversity, structure, expression, post-translational modification, permeability properties, subcellular location, etc., from considerable studies, can lead to an understanding of basic features of the water transport mechanism and increased illumination into plant water relations. Recent important advances in determining the structure and activity of different aquaporins give further details on the mechanism of functional regulation. Therefore, the current paper mainly focuses on aquaporin structure-function relationships, in order to understand the function and regulation of aquaporins at the cellular level and in the whole plant subjected to various environmental conditions. As a result, the straightforward view is that most aquaporins in plants are to regulate water flow mainly at cellular scale, which is the most widespread general interpretation of the physiological and functional assays in plants. © 2008 Informa UK Ltd.