The different isoforms are named according to their
molecular mass (kilo Dalton) and they share a similar structure of four membrane-spanning
domains, two extracellular loops, one cytoplasmic loop, one cytosolic N-terminal tail and Cterminal
region. The transmembrane domains and the extracellular loops are highly
conserved among the family members. N-terminus is also conserved, while the cytoplasmic
loop and C-terminus show great variation in terms of sequence and length. Furthermore
cytoplasmic tail and loop are susceptible to various post-translational modifications
(including phosphorylation), which are important to modulate functional activity of
connexin