作者: Levent B. Karademir , Hiroshi Aoyama , Benny Yue , Honghong Chen , Donglin Bai
DOI: 10.1042/BCJ20160200
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摘要: Gap junction (GJ) channels mediate direct intercellular communication and are composed of two docked hemichannels (connexin oligomers). It is well documented that the docking formation GJs possible only between compatible (or connexins). The mechanisms heterotypic compatibility not fully clear. We aligned protein sequences docking-compatible -incompatible connexins with connexin26 (Cx26). found hydrogen bond (HB)-forming residues on second extracellular domain (E2) Cx26 their equivalent conserved within connexins, but different docking-incompatible connexins. Replacing one or both these into corresponding in incompatible (K168V, N176H K168V-N176H) increased morphological functional connexin43 (Cx43) connexin40 (Cx40), indicating important for incompatibility Our homology structure models predict HBs hydrophobic interactions at E2 interface K168V-N176H/Cx43 probably other Revealing key will assist us understanding why putative hotspots disease-linked mutants.