Chapter 9 Flashcards
Why are receptors important in interacting with the environment?
Receptors are needed to sense environmental conditions and create a pathway for the appropriate cellialar response
What is quorum sensing?
Single-celled organisms communicate with eachother in response to changes in population density. Bacteria release signalling molecules that become more concentrated as the concentration of cells increase, and each cell responds to adapt to the changing environment.
How do yeast mate?
One cell secretes a hormone recognized by a cell of a different sex
Give examples of cellular signalling in bacteria
Cellular slime molds spend most of their time as single-celled amoeba, but become multicellular in order to reproduce. They sometimes gather together in response to chemical signals released by all cells in an area, forming a fruiting body
What is a fruiting body?
A multicellular organism formed by dictyostelium amoebas that produce spores that divide to form new populations of cells. They are formed by a form of quorum sensing.
True or false: most of the basic molecular mechanisms used in cell signalling in multicellular organisms evolved in single celled organisms millions of years ago
True
True or false: the signalling molecules and pathways are all extremely different across different organisms
False (cyclic AMP is produced both in animals and in the dictyostelium amoeba, for example)
What are the three steps of cellular signalling?
Reception, transduction, and response
Cellular reception
In reception, a signalling molecule binds to a receptor, and this changes its conformation. Cells have many receptors specific to a molecule or type of molecule, and different cell types express different receptors, which allows selectivity in signal response.
T or F: receptors are insoluble and are always in the membrane
False, receptors can be dissolved in the cytosol
What type of molecule most often binds to a receptor on a cell’s plasma membrane?
Polar, hydrophilic signalling molecules with binding sites facing the outside of the cell
What kind of molecules can bind to receptors inside the cell?
Nonpolar, hydrophobic ones since they can just diffuse through the membrane
What is transduction?
The process of converting a signal into the form necessary to cause a cellular response. This involves all of the interactions and modifications in a signalling pathway up until initiation of the cellular response. It is usually the most complex part.
How are signal transductions stopped?
These pathways contain off switches that inactivate the pathway once the signalling molecule is no longer present.
What is the cellular response?
Occurs after the transduction step. They are tailored to the specific needs of a cell and different cells can exhibit different responses, even in signalling pathways that employ the same receptors and pathways.
What does the specificity of a cellular response depend on?
The proteins and RNA molecules expressed in the cell, and the way those molecules are regulated by signal transduction mechanisms.
What is a protein that many transduction steps include, and why?
Protein kinases- they transfer a phosphate from an ATP onto an amino acid on a target protein, which changes the conformation of the protein and activates or inactivates them.
What are serine and threonine kinases?
Protein kinases that phosphorylate the amino acids serine and threonine
What are histidine, tyrosine, and aspartate kinases?
Protein kinases that phosphorylate histidine, tyrosine, and aspartate
How does a protein kinase know which amino acid to phosphorylate?
The active site recognizes a specific sequence of amino acids that includes the specific amino acid to be phosphorylated, and only proteins containing that sequence will be target proteins
Can protein kinases phosphorylate other protein kinases?
Yes, this is called a phosphorylation kinase, and the last kinase in the series phosphorylates other target proteins, producing the cellular response
Describe the role that epinephrine plays in breaking down polymers
Epinephrine binds to cell-surface receptor proteins, then allows a G protein to bind to the activated receptor and be activated. The activation of the G protein initiates a series of molecular interactions in the cell that eventually activate glycogen phosphorylase, which cleaves glucose monomers off of glycogen polymers.
Describe Sutherland’s experiment
- Homogenize liver tissue, which has supernatant containing inactive glycogen phosphorylace
- centrifuge, producing a supernatant containing cytoplasm
- centrifuge again, so supernatant contains glycogen phosphorylase
- resuspend the cell membranes and debrise, and add epinephrine, atp, and mg
- epinephrine binds and elicits a response and a second messenger
- combining the inactive glycogen phosphorylase and the active second messenger creates active glycogen phosphorylase
What was the conclusion of Sutherland’s experiment?
Response to the hormone epinephrine does not involve epinephrine directly; rather, it requires the first messenger, epinephrine, to activate a second messenger
What are some examples of cellular responses in single-celled organisms?
Changes in cellular metabolism in response to nutrient availability and changes in environmental variables such as temperature and pH
Examples of cellular responses in multicellular organisms
Cellular metabolism, transport mechanisms, electrical properties of neurons and muscles, changes in shape, migration
Communication by direct contact
Adjacent cells communicate with eachother when a membrane protein of one cell binds to a membrane protein in the other cell, which activates one or both proteins, which then activates a transduction pathway in one or both cells. Animals form tissues by binding to other cells of the same type- they recognize eachother using direct contact communication, and responses reinforce this communication (this is called cell-cell communication)
How do animal cells do direct contact?
Via gap junctions- electrical and metabolic activities between cells in a tissue, including electrical signals in cardiac and neuronal cells
How do plants do direct contact?
Through plasmodesmata- plant hormones regulating growth use this
Communication by local signalling
One cell releases a signalling molecule that diffuses through the extracellular fluid and causes a response in nearby target cells. Since the cell signalling is local, the molecule is a local regulator and the process is paracrine signalling
Where does paracrine signalling take place?
Chemical synapses (gaps separating plasma membrane of two cells, ensuring that only one adjacent cell is affected). Neurons use this. Muscle cells also use this.