biology - 1.4 Flashcards
How do multicellular organisms signal between molecules?
Using extracellular signalling molecules.
What are examples of extracellular signalling molecules?
Steroid hormones, peptide hormones and neurotransmitters.
What are receptor molecules of target cells?
Proteins with a binding site for a specific signal molecule.
What does binding change?
The conformation of the receptor, which initiates a response within the cell.
What do different cell types produce?
Specific signals that can only be detected and responded to by cells with the specific receptor.
Why may signalling molecules have different effects on different target cell types?
Due to differences in the intracellular signalling molecules and pathways that are involved.
In a multicellular organism, what may different cell types show?
A tissue-specific response to the same signal.
What can hydrophobic signalling molecules do?
They can diffuse directly through the phospholipid bilayers of membranes, and so bind to intracellular receptors.
What are the receptors for hydrophobic signalling molecules?
Transcription factors.
What are transcription factors?
Proteins that when bound to DNA can either stimulate or inhibit initiation of transcription.
What are examples of hydrophobic signalling molecules?
The steroid hormones oestrogen and testosterone.
What do steroid hormones do?
They bind to specific receptors in the cytosol or the nucleus.
What does the hormone-receptor complex do?
It moves to the nucleus where it binds to specific sites on DNA and affects gene expression.
What does the hormone-receptor complex bind to?
Specific DNA sequences called hormone response elements (HREs).
What does binding at hormone response elements do?
It influences the rate of transcription, with each steroid hormone affecting the gene expression of many different genes.
What do hydrophilic signalling molecules do?
They bind to transmembrane receptors and do not enter the cytosol.
What are examples of hydrophilic extracellular signalling molecules?
Peptide hormones and neurotransmitters.
When the ligand binds to the extracellular face, what happens to transmembrane receptors?
They change conformation. The signal molecule does not enter the cell, but the signal is transduced across the plasma membrane.
What do transmembrane receptors act as?
Signal transducers by converting the extracellular ligand-binding event into intracellular signals, which alters the behaviour of the cell.
What do transduced hydrophilic signals often involve?
G-proteins or cascades of phosphorylation by kinase enzymes.
What do G-proteins do?
They relay signals from activated receptors to target proteins such as enzymes and ion channels.
What do phosphorylation cascades allow?
More than one intracellular signalling pathway to be activated.
What do phosphorylation cascades involve?
A series of events with one kinase activating the next in the sequence and so on.
What can phosphorylation cascades result in?
The phosphorylation of many proteins as a result of the original signalling event.
What does binding of the peptide hormone insulin to its receptor result in?
An intracellular signalling cascade that triggers recruitment of GLUT4 glucose transporter proteins to the cell membrane of fat and muscle cells.