Cell Communication Flashcards
Why is cell to cell communication critical?
For the function and survival of the cell.
What is cell to cell communication responsible for?
The growth and development of multicellular organisms.
What are the three ways cells communicate?
1.Direct Contact
2. Local Signalling
3. Long-Distance Signalling
How does direct contact communicate?
Through cell junctions.
Where do signalling substances pass through in animals? And in plants?
In animals gap junctions.
In plant cells plasmodesmata.
How do local regulators work?
A secreting cell will release chemical messages that travel through extra cellular fluid.
The chemical messages will cause a response in a target cell.
What will chemical messages cause in a target cell?
A response.
How does paracrine signalling work?
Secretory cells release local regulators via exocytosis to adjacent cells.
Does synaptic signalling happen in animals or plants?
Animals, because they have neurons.
How does synaptic signalling work.
Neurons secrete neurotransmitters that diffuse across the synaptic cleft.
What do animals and plants use for long distance signalling.
Hormones.
Where do hormones travel in plants.
They travel in the plants vascular tissue (xylem or phloem) or through the air to reach target tissues
What is a ligand?
The signal being sent.
What is the reception.
The detection and receiving of a ligand by a target cell.
What is a receptor?
A macromolecule that binds to a signal molecule (ligand).
Is binding between ligand and receptor highly specific
Yes.
What happens to the receptor when the Ligand binds to the receptor?
The receptor activates.
What does the receptor activating allow the receptor to do? What does this initiate?
It allows the receptor to interact with other cellular molecules.
This initiates the transduction signal.
Where can the receptors be?
In the plasma membrane and inside the cell (intracellular).
What are some characteristics of plasma membrane receptors?
Most common type of receptor.
Binds to ligands that are polar, water soluble and large.
What are some characteristics of intracellular receptors?
Found in the cytoplasm or nucleus of the target cell.
Binds to ligands that can pass through the plasma membrane.
What is transduction?
The conversion of an extracellular signal to an intercellular signal that will bring about a cellular response.
What does transduction require?
A sequence of changes in a series of molecules known as a signal transduction pathway.
What does the signal transduction pathway regulate?
Protein activity.
