Advanced light source illuminates biological water-transport routes

X-ray diffraction crystallography at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL; Berkeley, CA) Advanced Light Source (ALS) has revealed the previously unobserved process of water transport through a cell membrane. The structure of an aquaporin 1 (AQP1) protein, one of the 10 mammalian members of the cell-membrane water-channel family, was probed at a resolution of 0.22 nm, allowing clear visualization of water molecules in transit and of molecular side-chains that determine properties of water-transport pathways across the cell membrane.1

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