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Nonaspanins are characterized by a large N-terminal extracellular domain and nine putative transmembrane domains.This evolutionarily conserved family comprised four members in mammals.Human EMP4 protein, which belongs to the superfamily member 4, has been found to be expressed in human metastatic melanoma cells,where EMP4 play an important role in tumour cannibal activity.EMP4 are also required for phagocytosis in S2 Drosophila cells.However, it is not clear which ion can pass through this channel and its functional role in mammalian cells.