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Concept
Gap junction
Summary
First photographed around 1952 it wasn't until 1969 that gap junctions were referred to as "gap junctions". Named after the 2-4 nm gap they bridged between cell membranes, they had been characterised in more detail by 1967. Gap junctions are one of four broad categories of intercellular connections that form between a multitude of animal cell types.
Within a gap junction reside protein complexes, referred initially to as "globules", observed to connect one cell to another and also vesicles within a cell to the outer cell membrane. By 1974 one of the major gap junction proteins was dubbed a "connexin", and six connexins were observed to form a channels called a "connexon", due to the connections connexon pairs made between cells. The initial discovery of gap junctions in nerve cells lent credence to their function in transmission of electrical impulses. Experimental confirmation followed with molecules, ions and electrical impulses shown to pass through the connexons which proved to be a generalized regulated gate between cells in gap junctions. As a type of hemichannel connexons also form channels to the extracellular regions as well.
While more than 26 different connexins frequently populate gap junctions in various different tissues there are at least 12 other components that form the specialized area of membrane called the gap junction. These components include among others the tight junction protein ZO-1 that holds the membranes close together, sodium channels, and aquaporin.
With increasing ability to sequence the DNA of organisms the complexity of the gap junction family of proteins increased. The term connexin was used to describe the gap junction proteins connecting two cells with pores. Sequencing of these pore proteins showed them to be strucuturally similar between vertebrates and invertebrates but different in sequence. As a result the term "innexin" was used to differentiate invertebrate from vertebrate connexins.
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