Lecture Five: Cell signalling Two Flashcards
Whats an example of an intracellular receptor mediated signalling pathway?
Steroid Hormone receptors
What do steroid hormones typically do?
Generally bind transcription regulators directly and activate gene expression
No mechanism for amplifying or shutting off enzyme cascades so tend to work at low level over a longer time frame.
What other hormones act in a similar manner to steroid hormones?
Non-steroidal hormones such as retinoic acid, VitD3 and thyroid hormone also work via similar mechanisms
Describe steroid hormone similarities;
Subtle differences (all have cholesterol back bone) but huge functional differences because of very specific receptors
Whats a property that is essential to steroid hormones?
Typically hormones must get through the lipophilic membrane on their own accord (without carrier molecules)
Tend to be lipophilic i.e cholesterol backbone
What do steroid hormones act on?
Steroid hormone receptors bind directly to intracellular receptors that act to regulate gene expression.
One hormone can bind to a promotor- turns on gene expression = multiple proteins if stays bound
Whats an intracellular receptor mediated signalling pathway?
Nitric oxide
- Cell permeable gas
- Acts only over short range
- Signals via production of cGMP
- Plays a major role in endothelial cells regulating smooth muscle tone and thus blood flow
How is cGMP produced?
- cGMP produced by transmembrane receptor guanylate cyclases or by soluble guanylate cyclases whose expression is inducible and activity is stimulated by NO
What is cGMP?
A intracellular signalling mechanism
How does cGMP work?
- One effector is allosteric activation of cGMP dependent protein kinase
How is cGMP regulated?
In transducin signaling cGMP breakdown increased when Gi subunits of heterotrimeric G-proteins interact with cGMP PDE
Describe an intracellular cascade using the previous examples of signalling molecules;
NO can diffuse into the cell and activate Soluble Guanylate Cyclase.
This converts GMP into cGMP which can activate (allosterically modulate) Protein kinase G
What are some examples of cell surface receptor mediated signalling pathways?
GPCR (most common)
Receptor Tyrosine Kinases
Describe the structure of RTK and GPCR;
GPCR: 7 transmembrane domains
RTK; One transmembrane domain, but always in a dimer
How do GPCR signal to the cell?
The signal to the cell using a hetrodimeric G-protein
Describe the heterotrimeric g protein;
The consist of three subunits (GaGbGg).
There are 22 different genes for Ga subunits, 12 different genes for Gb subunits and 7 different genes for Gg subunits
Each different combination has a unique signaling capability but there are some broad themes.
What is typically the function of the Ga subunit?
Activity of subunit is controlled by guanylate nucleotides, being inactive when bound to GDP and active when bound to GTP
GTP bound G separates from the other two subunits and binds to target proteins and modifies their activity
What is the function of Gb and Gg subunits?
When released from the trimer the subunit dimer also binds to target proteins and regulate their activity
The subunit is a GTPase so as soon as the GTP is bound it starts to remove the -phosphate to return it to GDP (and hence inactive form)
How many GPCR genes are there?
There are ~800 different genes for GPCRs and they are broken down into five different structural classes
Describe the importance of GPCR structure;;
- Hydrophobic intermembrane domain
- Ligands fit perfectly into the binding pocket(very tight binding)
Describe step 1/6 for GPCR signal transduction;
Once the ligand binds to the binding pocket, it triggers a 3D conformational change that signals dissociation of Ga GDP from the hetrotrimeric g protein, and it binds the receptor.
Describe step 2/6 for GPCR signal transduction;
Ga binds GTP and its function is now completely changes and it has become activated. (still bound to the receptor)
Describe step 3/6 for GPCR signal transduction;
Ga has several sub classes and the signals it produces now that it is activated depends on the subclass Ga protein.
Different receptors couple to different g proteins.q
What are the subclasses of Ga proteins?
Ga (q)
Ga (s)
Ga (i)