Regulation and Signalling Flashcards
When was the first multicellular algae?
1.5 billion years ago
How did multicellularity arise?
- Multiple times during eukaryotic evolution
- Evolved independentlu
- Last common ancestor was unicellular
- Good advantages to being multicellular
What are the advantages to being multicellular?
- Bigger = better protection from predation
- More buffered from the environment → internal environment
- Allows development of different cell types with specialized functions within organisms
What is the flagellar synthesis constraint hypothesis?
- Cells with flagella allow movement
- Micro-tubule (required for cell division)
- Cell with flagella is unable to divide
- Evolutionary pressure = need specialization
- Presence of both allows movement and division
Why is the balance between differentaited cell types important?
- Don’t want one type vs another
- Need to coordinate
Describe cell communication in multicellularity
Need to sense extracellular and intracellular environment
Recognition of self and non-self
Describe cell adhesion in multicellular orgnaisms
Multicellular organisms need to stick together
Complex system
Why does there need to be cell signalling?
- Homeostasis and maintanence
- Process of development
- Cells have to reach their 3D position
- Put in righ place at the righ time
- Make the decision to become specilaised
What are choanoflagellates?
- Ancestral unicellular orgnaism
- Genome analysis indicates a close relationship with animals
- Have many genes found in animals including genes coding for parts of the signalling pathways
Describe the yeast mating type.
Mating type factor = peptide → secretes
Cells from protrusions → for mating → produce haploid spores
Cell signalling → have to recognise the cells
Describe development
- Highly conserved
- Hierarchical process
- Starts simple
Describe regulative development.
- 2 cells are able to regulate
- Divides - ball of cells - mebryo
- If separate the two halves still form an embryo with the same genetic infomration (no loss)
- Experiment done with sea urchin
What is gene constancy?
Somatic cells generally contain all the same genetic information
What demonstrations that genetic informaiton is not lost during differentaiton?
Cloning by transfer of nuclei from differentiated somatic cells
What is an example of cloning
Dolly the sheep
What is differential gene expression?
- All cells are derived from the fertilised egg cell
- Cell lineage restriction is dependent upon differential gene expression
- Process of development generates different patterns of gene activity in the cells of the embryo
What is gene expression?
Process by which a gene codes information converted into the structures present and operating in the cell
Where are proteins regulated?
Splicing
Additions/modifications
Transcription
Translation
Describe the eukaryotic gene
- Exon, intron structure (splicing)
- Cis regulatory elements
What are the cis regulatory elements?
- Promoter → upstream → transcription begins
- Regulatory regions → can be distant, upstream or downstream → quite far
What is the role of the cis regulatory elements?
key in regulating where and when a gene is transcribed
What are trans-acting factors?
Transcription factor proteins - trans regulators - bind directly to DNA or associated with complexes of proteins bound to DNA
Describe RNA polymerase II as a protein coding gene?
- Acts initially at promoter region
- Unable to transcribe DNA on its own
- Needs to be associated with proteins
- Need transcription factors
What is the transcription initiation complex?
- Large complex of proteins
- Required for the transcription of all protein coding genes transcribe by RNA polymerase
- Assembly takes place at the TATA box
Specific sequences of DNA
In promoter region
What are the functions of the transcription initiation complex?
- Recognize sequence (TATA box binding proteins)
- Recruit RNA polymerase to promoter
- Help unwind DNA helix
What are specific transcription factors?
- Enhancers and silencers
- DNA binding - tissue specific
- Bind to extended regulatory regions
What are enhancers?
- Bound by transcription factor proteins
- Promote transcription
What are silencers?
- Repressor proteins
- Inhibit transcription
What are DNA binding transcription factors?
Recognize and bind to specific sequence of DNA in cis regulatory elements
How big are the binding sites for DNA binding transcription factors?
6 -12 bases
What is a protein interaction domain?
Binding association with other proteins
What is meant by integration of regulatory information?
- Multiple transcription factors will influence the expression of a gene
- Cause DNA to loop → bending of DNA structure
- Allows them to interact with the transcription initiation complex
- Can contact and alter activity of RNA polymerase II
- Have multiple
- Binding of Txn factor 1 to enhancer of gene x activates transcription
- Factor 2 to enhancer gene y activates transcription factor
What is differential gene expression?
- Combination of cis regulatory element in each gene is different
- Genes regulated by different transcription factors bound at cis-regulatory element
- Combinants → which genes expressed
What do RNA polymerase and TF do?
Unwind small region of DNA helix at promoter. Use on strand as template
What do TF regulate?
Expression of multiple downstreams targets.
Cascade of gene transcription
What can a combination of TF achieve?
Regulate multiple - initiate one - cascade - rapidly gene complex patterns
How do cells generate different patterns of gene activity?
- Cells developing communicate with each other
- Cell signalling
- Process of development
What happens during the formation of the embryo?
- Cells communicate
- The 2 cells msut be aware of each other
What is the organiser graft experiment?
- Early frog embryos
- Cells move during development
- Gastrulation
- CNS
- Blastopore
- Cut and paste in the emrbyo
- Too the dorsal blastopore lip
- Put in another embryo which resulted in 2 dorsal blastopore lips
- You get a double headed frog
What happens during gastrulation?
Cells form the gut. They are outside the embryo so have to move inside the embryo
How is the CNS formed in an embryo?
Start on the outside of the embryo. Flat sheet of cells which roll up into a tube - move inside the embryo
Describe what happened when they repeated the organiser graft experiment.
- Dyed the dorsal blastopsore which had been transplanted
- Determine which cells in the second body are derived from the host and the donor
- Most cells in secondary axis are host derived
- Graft produces signals that recruit/organise the host tissue
What can cell signalling do?
Regulate gene transcription and expression
What is meant by development?
Cell cycle control. Cell movement. Differentiation. Patterning
What is an example of signalling going wrong?
A cyclopic lamb - had been eating corn lily. Cyclopamine which inhibits a signalling pathway of development of cells along the midline
What are the different components of a signalling pathway?
- Extracellular signal molecules
- Receptor protein
- Intracellular signalling
- Target proteins
What is the role of the receptor protein in the signalling pathway?
allows the cell to perceive that signal
What is the role of the intracellular signalling proteins in the signalling pathway?
chain of proteins which pass that signal onn operating within the cell. can be very complicated
What is the role of the target protein in the signalling pathway?
Effectors of the signalling pathway.
What kind of signalling molecules transmit over large distances through the extracellular enviornment?
Hormones
When is short distance signalling very important?
During the developmental process.
Specialisation happens when the embryo is very small
What are some classes of singalling molecules?
Peptides. Small molecules eg nitrous oxide. Metabolic products. Lipids
How do receptor proteins work?
- Signals bind to specific receptor proteins
- High affinity for receptor - binds
- Signalling molecules present at very low concentrations
- Cell can only respond to a signal if it has the right receptor
- Typically present at the cell surface but also within the cell
Describe the signal transduction pathway
- Pass the signal from receptor to targets
- Can be very complex
- Contains a series of proteins
What are the main functions of the signal transduction pathway
- Amplification of the signal
- Integration of multiple signalling pathways
- Allows levels regulation
How could a signal be amplified?
If the receptor proteins have an enzymatic property they can act as a catalyst
How could a signal be integrated?
Shared components of different signalling pathways
How could a signal be regulated?
Inhibiting, modulating or fine tuning
What happens when the target protein is reached?
Changes in the activity of the target proteins which will affect cell behvaiour
Give some examples of altered cellular function
- Metbabolic = insulin and glucoagon
- Cell division = growth factors
- Cytoskeleton - axon guidance chemotropic factors (cell movement and cell shape)
- Gene expression = growth factors