APBIOLQG
Aquaporin Water Channels
Peter Agre
Roderick MacKinnon
All living matter is made up of cells. A single human being has as many as the stars in a galaxy, about one hundred thousand million. The various cells – e.g. muscle cells, kidney cells and nerve cells – act together in an intricate system in each one of us. Through pioneering discoveries concerning the water and ion channels of cells, this year’s Nobel Laureates Peter
Agre and Roderick MacKinnon, have contributed to fundamental chemical knowledge on how cells function. They have opened our eyes to a fantastic family of molecular machines: channels, gates and valves all of which are needed for the cell to function.
Molecular channels through the cell wall
To maintain even pressure in the cells it is important that water can pass through the cell wall. This has been known for a long time. The appearance and function of these pores, remained for a long time as one of the classical unsolved problems of biochemistry. It was not until around 1990 that Peter Agre discovered the first water channel. Like so much else in the living cell, it was all about a protein.
Water molecules are not the only entities that pass into and out of the cell. For thousands of millions of cells to be able to function as something other than one large lump, coordination is required. Thus communication between the cells is necessary. The signals sent in and between cells consist of ions or small molecules. These start cascades of chemical reactions that cause our muscles to tense, our eyes to water – indeed, that control all our bodily functions. The signals in our brains also involve such chemical reactions. When we stub a toe this starts a signal moving up towards the brain. Along a chain of nerve cells, through interaction between chemical signals and ion currents, information is conveyed from cell to cell like a baton in a relay race.
It was in 1998 that Roderick MacKinnon succeeded for the first time in
Peter Agre
Roderick MacKinnon
All living matter is made up of cells. A single human being has as many as the stars in a galaxy, about one hundred thousand million. The various cells – e.g. muscle cells, kidney cells and nerve cells – act together in an intricate system in each one of us. Through pioneering discoveries concerning the water and ion channels of cells, this year’s Nobel Laureates Peter
Agre and Roderick MacKinnon, have contributed to fundamental chemical knowledge on how cells function. They have opened our eyes to a fantastic family of molecular machines: channels, gates and valves all of which are needed for the cell to function.
Molecular channels through the cell wall
To maintain even pressure in the cells it is important that water can pass through the cell wall. This has been known for a long time. The appearance and function of these pores, remained for a long time as one of the classical unsolved problems of biochemistry. It was not until around 1990 that Peter Agre discovered the first water channel. Like so much else in the living cell, it was all about a protein.
Water molecules are not the only entities that pass into and out of the cell. For thousands of millions of cells to be able to function as something other than one large lump, coordination is required. Thus communication between the cells is necessary. The signals sent in and between cells consist of ions or small molecules. These start cascades of chemical reactions that cause our muscles to tense, our eyes to water – indeed, that control all our bodily functions. The signals in our brains also involve such chemical reactions. When we stub a toe this starts a signal moving up towards the brain. Along a chain of nerve cells, through interaction between chemical signals and ion currents, information is conveyed from cell to cell like a baton in a relay race.
It was in 1998 that Roderick MacKinnon succeeded for the first time in