Aquaporins (AQPs) were discovered as channels facilitating water movement across cellular membranes. Whereas much of the research has focused on characterizing AQPs with respect to cell water homeostasis, recent discoveries in terms of the transport selectivity of AQP homologs has shed new light...

Metalloids can severely harm human physiology in a toxicological sense if taken up from the environment in acute high doses or chronically. However, arsenic or antimony containing drugs are still being used as treatment and are often the sole regime for certain forms of cancer, mainly types of...

Aquaporins are important channel proteins that are responsible for the balance of cellular osmolarity and nutrient transport in vertebrates. Recently, new functions of these ancient channels have been found in the conduction of metalloid arsenic (As). Chronic As exposure through contaminated...

Aquaporins (AQPs) and aquaglyceroporins facilitate transport of a broad spectrum of substrates such as water, glycerol and other small uncharged solutes. More recently, AQPs have also been shown to facilitate diffusion of metalloids such as arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb). At neutral pH, the...

This chapter reviews physical chemical properties, origin and use of metalloids and their relevance in the environment. The elements boron (B), silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), tellurium (Te), polonium (Po) and astatine (At) are considered metalloids. Metalloids conduct...

Arsenic is a toxic and highly abundant metalloid that endangers human health through drinking water and the food chain. The most common forms of arsenic in the environment are arsenate [As(V)] and arsenite [As(III)]. As(V) is a nonfunctional phosphate analog that enters the food chain via plant...

Major intrinsic proteins (MIPs) form a large superfamily of proteins that can be divided into different subfamilies and groups according to phylogenetic analyses. Plants encode more MIPs than other organisms and seven subfamilies have been defined, whereof the Nodulin26‑like major intrinsic...

Biological membranes define the structural and functional boundaries in living cells and their organelles. The integrity of the cell depends on its ability to separate inside from outside and yet at the same time allow massive transport of matter in and out the cell. Nature has elegantly met this...

Silicon (Si) is the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust and exerts beneficial effects on plant growth and production by alleviating both biotic and abiotic stresses including diseases, pests, lodging, drought and nutrient imbalance. Silicon is taken up by the roots in the form of...

Understanding of the molecular mechanisms of Boron (B) transport has been greatly advanced in the last decade. BOR1, the first B transporter in living systems, was identified by forward genetics using Arabidopsis mutants. Genes similar to BOR1 have been reported to share different physiological...