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Updated: May 12, 2026

Measuring Fluxes of Mineral Nutrients and Toxicants in Plants with Radioactive Tracers
Published on: August 22, 2014
The functions of voltage-dependent anion channels in plants
Yoshihiro Takahashi1, Chika Tateda
1Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8577, Japan. ytakahashi@ige.tohoku.ac.jp
Abstract:
Voltage-dependent anion channels (VDACs), known as outer mitochondrial membrane proteins, are present in all eukaryotic cells. In mammals, they are now recognized to play crucial roles in the regulation of metabolic and energetic functions of mitochondria as well as in mitochondria-mediated apoptosis, in association with various proteins and non-protein modulators. Although there is much less information available for plant than for animal VDACs, their similar electrophysiological and topological properties suggest that some common functions are conserved among eukaryotic VDACs. Recently, it has been revealed that plant VDACs also have various important physiological functions not only in developmental and reproductive processes, but also in biotic and abiotic stress responses, including programmed cell death. In this review, we summarize recent findings about the sequence motifs, localization, and function of plant VDACs and discuss these results in the light of recent advances in research on animal VDACs.
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