Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Window on a Microworld: Simple Microfluidic Systems for Studying Microbial Transport in Porous Media
14:25

Window on a Microworld: Simple Microfluidic Systems for Studying Microbial Transport in Porous Media

Published on: May 3, 2010

Why do microorganisms have aquaporins?

An Tanghe1, Patrick Van Dijck, Johan M Thevelein

  • 1Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology, Institute of Botany and Microbiology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), Kasteelpark Arenberg 31, B-3001 Leuven-Heverlee, Flanders, Belgium.

Trends in Microbiology
|January 13, 2006
PubMed

Keywords:
aquaporin functionmicrobial adaptationfreeze tolerancecell membrane transport

More Related Videos

Measuring the Osmotic Water Permeability Coefficient (Pf) of Spherical Cells: Isolated Plant Protoplasts as an Example14:20

Measuring the Osmotic Water Permeability Coefficient (Pf) of Spherical Cells: Isolated Plant Protoplasts as an Example

Published on: October 8, 2014

Tracking Single Proteins in Lipid Bilayers Using Fluorescence Microscopy08:39

Tracking Single Proteins in Lipid Bilayers Using Fluorescence Microscopy

Published on: December 12, 2025

Related Concept Videos

Water and Mineral Acquisition02:34

Water and Mineral Acquisition

Specialized tissues in plant roots have evolved to capture water, minerals, and some ions from the soil. Roots exhibit a variety of branching patterns that facilitate this process. The outermost root cells have specialized structures called root hairs that increase the root surface, thus increasing soil contact. Water can passively cross into roots, as the concentration of water in the soil is higher than that of the root tissue. Minerals, in contrast, are actively transported into root cells.
The Significance of Membrane Transport01:44

The Significance of Membrane Transport

The transport of solutes across the cell membrane is essential for metabolic processes, like maintaining cell size and volume, generating the action potential, exchanging nutrients and gases, etc. Membrane transport can be either passive or active. It can be simple diffusion, facilitated, or mediated transport aided by transport proteins such as transporters and channels.
Transporters facilitate either an active or passive movement of solutes. They can allow a single-molecule transport down its...
Aquaporins01:25

Aquaporins

Aquaporins or AQPs are a family of integral membrane proteins whose primary function is to transport water, while some called aquaglyceroporins also transport glycerol. In addition, aquaporins have also been suspected to be involved in transporting volatile substances, such as carbon dioxide and ammonia, across membranes. Such AQPs that act as gas channels are often highly expressed in cells involved in the gaseous exchange, such as red blood cells, epithelial cells, and pulmonary capillaries.
Types of Microorganisms01:29

Types of Microorganisms

Microorganisms are a diverse group of microscopic entities broadly categorized into cellular and acellular types based on their structural organization. Cellular microorganisms include bacteria, archaea, fungi, protozoa, and algae, while acellular microorganisms are represented by viruses.Cellular MicroorganismsBacteriaBacteria, tiny prokaryotic organisms, exhibit fascinating shapes such as rods, spheres, and spirals. They adapt to diverse habitats, including soil, water, and human-associated...
Factors Influencing Microbial Growth: Osmolarity01:28

Factors Influencing Microbial Growth: Osmolarity

Osmolarity is the measure of solute concentration in a solution. It plays a critical role in determining water availability for organisms. Water moves across semipermeable membranes through osmosis, flowing from regions of lower solute concentration (more dilute) to regions of higher solute concentration (more concentrated).In high-solute environments, microbial cells lose water, leading to dehydration and inhibited growth. The extent to which water is available to microbes in such environments...
Microenvironments01:22

Microenvironments

Microorganisms inhabit highly localized spaces known as microenvironments, which are defined by distinct physical and chemical characteristics. These include oxygen concentration, pH, temperature, light availability, and nutrient levels. The conditions within a microenvironment can differ markedly from those in the surrounding area and significantly influence microbial growth, metabolism, and community structure.Microenvironments often display sharp physicochemical gradients over small spatial...