Transmembrane proteins of tight junctions

Tight junctions from a morphological and functional boundary between the ap ical and basolateral cell surface domains of epithelia and endothelia, and regulate selective diffusion along the paracellular space. Two types of fou r-span transmembrane proteins, occludin and claudins, as well as the single -span protein JAM are associated with tight junctions. The functional analy sis of these proteins starts to reveal how they are involved in the functio ns of tight junctions, which of their domains are important for these funct ions, and how they: interact with each other to formulate junctional diffus ion barriers.