Aquaporins : a family of highly regulated multifunctional channels / Charles Hachez and François Chaumont -- Phylogeny of major intrinsic proteins / Jonas Å.H. Danielson and Urban Johanson -- Metalloids, soil chemistry and the environment / Enzo Lombi and Peter E. Holm -- Arsenic transport in prokaryotes and eukaryotic microbes / Barry P. Rosen and Markus J. Tamás -- Metalloid transport by aquaglyceroporins : consequences in the treatment of human diseases / Rita Mukhopadhyay and Eric Beitz -- Roles of vertebrate aquaglyceroporins in arsenic transport and detoxification / Zijuan Liu -- Molecular mechanisms of boron transport in plants : involvement of arabidopsis NIP5;1 and NIP6;1 / Kyoko Miwa [and others] -- Silicon transporters in higher plants / Jian Feng Ma -- Major intrinsic proteins and arsenic transport in plants : new players and their potential roles / Gerd P. Bienert and Thomas P. Jahn -- Major intrinsic proteins in biomimetic membranes / Claus Hélix Nielsen
Summary
This book is dedicated to the metalloids, a recently discovered group of substrates for a number of specific MIPs in a diverse spectrum of organisms. Particular focus is given to the essential boron, the beneficial silicon and the highly toxic arsenic. The respective MIP isoforms that facilitate the transport of these metalloids include members from several clades of the phylogenetic tree, suggesting that metalloid transport is an ancient function within this family of channel proteins