Prediction of aquaporin function by integrating evolutionary and functional analyses

Abstract

Aquaporins (AQPs) are a family of channel proteins that transport water and/or small solutes across cell membranes. Aquaporins are present in Bacteria, Eukarya and Archaea. The classical AQP evolution 47 paradigm explains the inconsistent phylogenetic trees by multiple transfer events and emphasizes that the assignment of orthologous AQPs is not possible, making it difficult to integrate functional information. Recently, a novel phylogenetic framework of eukaryotic AQP evolution showed congruence between eukaryotic AQPs and organismal trees identifying 32 orthologous clusters in plants and animals (Gene 2012 503:165-176). In this article, we discuss in depth the methodological strength, the ability to predict functionality and the aquaporin community perception about the different paradigms of AQP evolution. Moreover, we show an updated review of AQPs transport functions in association with phylogenetic analyses. Finally, we discuss the possible effect of aquaporin data integration in the understanding of water and solute transport in eukaryotic cells.