School of Biotechnology, Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida (U.P), India

Aquaporins (AQPs), are the highly regulated trans-membrane water channel protein’, having the great potential to develop resistance in crop plant under the stress conditions. 30 genes of different subfamily of aquaporins play an important role in plant tolerance against the abiotic stress. On the basis of conserved NPA motifs and amino acid residues (aromatic/or arginine regions), AQPs under stress classified into three main subfamilies: (i) subfamily-1 ‘AQPs involved in water and ion transport’; (ii) subfamily-2 ‘GLPs permeable to glycerol and neutral molecules; and (iii) subfamily-3 ‘GLAs (aqua-glyceroporins)’ permeable to both water and glycerol. In plants SoPIP2; 1 is the only plant aquaporin whose atomic structure is available. It has Leu197, residues-His99, Val104 and Leu108 residues of amino acids, which form a hydrophobic barrier, that narrows the pore diameter and regulate water transport in stress.