A Region Within the Third Extracellular Loop of Rat AQP6 Precludes Its Trafficking to Plasma Membrane in a Heterologous Cell Line.

The inability to over-express 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 the AGR reporter system we have identified a region within loop C of AQP6 that is responsible for severely hampering its plasma membrane localization. Serine substitution corroborated that amino acids present within AQP6 194-213 of AQP6 loop C contribute to intracellular retention. This intracellular retention signal may preclude proper plasma membrane trafficking and severely curtail expression of AQP6 in heterologous cells.