Gap junction proteins. (A) Relationship among three types of gap junction proteins: connexins, innexins, and pannexins (Baranova et al., 2004). (B) Structure of connexin proteins. N: N-terminus; TM: transmembrane domain; EL: extracellular loop; IL: intracellular loop; C: C-terminus (Kumar and Gilula, 1996). (C) Schematic presentation of a gap junction (Kumar and Gilula, 1996). (D) Phylogenic relationship between human and zebrafish connexins (Eastman et al., 2006; Cruciani and Mikalsen, 2007). (E) Sequence alignment of N-terminal domains of human and zebrafish alpha-type connexins (Connexin sequences were obtained from genome data base in Sanger Institute, http://www.sanger.ac.uk/).
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