Significance of oxygen transport through aquaporins

Aquaporins are membrane integral proteins responsible for the transmembrane transport of water and other small neutral molecules. Despite their well-acknowledged importance in water transport, their significance in gas transport processes remains unclear. Growing evidence points to the involvement of plant aquaporins in CO₂ delivery for photosynthesis. The role of these channel proteins in the transport of O₂ and other gases may also be more important than previously envisioned. In this study, we examined O₂ permeability of various human, plant, and fungal aquaporins by co-expressing heterologous aquaporin and myoglobin in yeast. Two of the most promising O₂-transporters (Homo sapiens AQP1 and Nicotiana tabacum PIP1;3) were confirmed to facilitate O₂ transport in the spectrophotometric assay using yeast protoplasts. The over-expression of NtPIP1;3 in yeasts significantly increased their O₂ uptake rates in suspension culture. In N. tabacum roots subjected to hypoxic hydroponic conditions, the transcript levels of the O₂-transporting aquaporin NtPIP1;3 significantly increased after the seven-day hypoxia treatment, which was accompanied by the increase of ATP levels in the apical root segments. Our results suggest that the functional significance of aquaporin-mediated O₂ transport and the possibility of controlling the rate of transmembrane O₂ transport should be further explored.