A region within the third extracellular loop of rat Aquaporin 6 precludes trafficking to plasma membrane in a heterologous cell line.

The inability to over-express Aquaporin 6 (AQP6) in the plasma membrane of heterologous cells has hampered efforts to further characterize the function of this aquaglyceroporin membrane protein at atomic detail using crystallographic approaches. Using an Aquaporin 3-tGFP Reporter (AGR) system we have identified a region within loop C of AQP6 that is responsible for severely hampering plasma membrane expression. Serine substitution corroborated that amino acids present within AQP6194-213 of AQP6 loop C contribute to intracellular endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention. This intracellular retention signal may preclude proper plasma membrane trafficking and severely curtail expression of AQP6 in heterologous expression systems.