Unnexin is a protein subunit of a large-pore channel expressed by unicellular organisms.

ABSTRACT: Cells of vertebrate and invertebrate organisms express proteins specialized in membrane channel-based cell-cell communication that are absent in unicellular organisms. We recently described the prediction of some members of the large-pore channel family in kinetoplastids, consisting of proteins called unnexins, which share several structural features with innexin and pannexin proteins. Here, we demonstrated that the unnexin1 protein (Unx1) is delivered to the cell membrane, displaying a topology consisting of four transmembrane domains with C and N termini on the cytoplasmic side and form large-pore channels that are permeable to small molecules. Low extracellular Ca²⁺/Mg²⁺ levels or extracellular alkalinization, but not mechanical stretching, increases channel activi

SUBMITTER: Guiza J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10400985 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature