Chapter 11 Flashcards
Cell Communication
External Signals
External signals are converted to responses within the cell.
External signals: Signals coming from other cells.
Signal Transduction Pathway
Signal reception, signal transduction, cellular response. 3 major steps. Exist in the cells of both unicellular and multicellular organisms.
Local vs. Long distance signaling
Contact between cells: Cell junctions and Cell-surface molecules.
Local distance (few cells distance): Paracrine signaling or synaptic signaling.
Long distance (up to body-length distance): Endocrine (hormonal) signaling.
Paracrine Signaling
A signaling cell acts on nearby target cells by secreting molecule of a local regulator.
Just to neighboring cells. Fast (just into ECF (extracellular fluid)). Handful of target cells.
Synaptic Signaling
A nerve cell releases neurotransmitter molecules into a synapse, stimulating the target cell, such as a muscle or another nerve cell.
(Sort of a subset of paracrine) Very targeted. Superfast. From 1 to 1 target cell across the synaptic cleft.
Endocrine (hormonal) Signaling
Specialized cells release hormones, which travel through the circulatory system to other parts of the body, where they reach target cells that can recognize and respond to them.
Always involves blood. Slowish. Long distance. Lots of possible target cells.
Autocrine Signaling
(Sort of a subset of paracrine). Cell secretes signal (primary messenger). Cell has receptors for its own signal. Can talk to itself.
Cell/cell via cytosol connection
Cell Junctions/Plasmodesmata allow molecules, including signaling molecules, to pass readily between adjacent cells without crossing plasma membranes.
Cell/cell via surface molecule connections
Cell-surface molecules on adjacent cells interact with each other, resulting in a signal passing between the cells.
Three stages of Cell signaling
- Reception: Reception is the target cell’s detection of a signaling molecule coming from outside the cell. Detected when the signaling molecule binds to a receptor protein located at the cell’s surface (or inside the cell, discussed later).
- Transduction: The binding of the signaling molecule changes the receptor protein in some way, initiating transduction. Converts the signal to a form that can bring about a specific cellular response. Can sometimes occur in a single step, but more often requires a sequence of changes in a series of different molecules, a SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION PATHWAY.
- Response: The transduced signal finally triggers a specific cellular response. The response may be almost any imaginable cellular activity, such as catalysis by an enzyme, rearrangement of the cytoskeleton, or activation of a specific genes in the nucleus.
Ligand
Signaling molecule. Any molecule that binds to another molecule.
Signal Reception
Happens in the plasma membrane, cytosol and nucleus.
Plasma Membrane receptors: required by
Proteins, glycoproteins, amino acids and dipeptides
Cytoplasmic/nuclear receptors
Required by Steroid molecules, CO and NO.
Examples of plasma membrane receptors
G-protein coupled receptor, ligand-gated ion channels, and Receptor Tyrosine Kinases (RTKs)
