Answer:
In explanation.
Step-by-step explanation:
What are gap junctions?
-Gap junctions are channels that physically connect adjacent cells, gap junctions play an essential role in a wide range of physiological processes in nearly every system in the body, including the nervous system.
What is the function of gap junctions in animal cells?
-Functionally, gap junctions in animal cells are a lot like plasmodesmata in plant cells: they are channels between neighboring cells that allow for the transport of ions, water, and other substances 3.
-Gap junctions develop when a set of six membrane proteins called connexins form an elongated, donut-like structure called a connexon. When the pores, or “doughnut holes,” of connexons in adjacent animal cells align, a channel forms between the cells. ( Invertebrates also form gap junctions in a similar way but use a different set of proteins called innexins ).
-Gap junctions are particularly important in cardiac muscle: the electrical signal to contract spreads rapidly between heart muscle cells as ions pass through gap junctions, allowing the cells to contract in tandem.
What is the function of gap junctions in human cells?
-Gap junctions are channels that physically connect adjacent cells, mediating the rapid exchange of small molecules, and playing an essential role in a wide range of physiological processes in nearly every system in the body, including the nervous system.
- Gap junctions are membrane channels that mediate the cell-to-cell movement of ions and small metabolites. In the heart, gap junctions play an important role in impulse conduction.
Hope this helps.