Scientific background: |
Aquaporin-9 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the AQP9 gene. AQP9 encodes a 295-amino-acid protein with the amino acid sequence identity with AQP3 (48%), AQP7 (45%), and other aquaporins (approximately 30%), suggesting that AQP3, AQP7, and AQP9 belong to a subfamily of the aquaporin family. AQP9 is the major glycerol channel in mouse erythrocytes and suggest that this transport pathway may contribute to the virulence of intraerythrocytic stages of malarial infection. |
References: |
1. "Entrez Gene: AQP9 aquaporin 9"
2. Ishibashi, K., Kuwahara, M., Gu, Y., Tanaka, Y., Marumo, F., Sasaki, S. Cloning and functional expression of a new aquaporin (AQP9) abundantly expressed in the peripheral leukocytes permeable to water and urea, but not to glycerol. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 244: 268-274, 1998.
3. Liu, Y., Promeneur, D., Rojek, A., Kumar, N., Frokiaer, J., Nielsen, S., King, L. S., Agre, P., Carbrey, J. M. Aquaporin 9 is the major pathway for glycerol uptake by mouse erythrocytes, with implications for malarial virulence. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 104: 12560-12564, 2007.
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