01:119:115 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Signal Transduction, Paracrine Signalling, Plant Hormone

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Biological Science
• Course: 01:119:115
• Professor: A Keating

Document Summary

How do cells respond to these messages: we will first consider communication in microbes, to gain insight into the evolution of cell signaling. Cell signaling evolved early in the history of life: o(cid:374)e topi(cid:272) of (cid:272)ell (cid:862)(cid:272)o(cid:374)(cid:448)ersatio(cid:374)(cid:863) is se(cid:454). Local signaling in plants is not well understood. Because of their cell walls, plants must have different mechanisms from animals: plants and animals use hormones for long-distance signaling. I(cid:374) re(cid:272)eptio(cid:374), a (cid:272)he(cid:373)i(cid:272)al sig(cid:374)al (cid:271)i(cid:374)ds to a (cid:272)ellular protei(cid:374), t(cid:455)pi(cid:272)all(cid:455) at the (cid:272)ell"s surfa(cid:272)e or inside the cell. In transduction, binding leads to a change in the receptor that triggers a series of changes in a series of different molecules along a signal-transduction pathway. The molecules in the pathway are called relay molecules. In response, the transduced signal triggers a specific cellular activity. Similarities among g proteins and g-protein-linked receptors of modern organisms suggest that this signaling system evolved very early.