BIO 1140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Cell Surface Receptor
7 Mar 2012
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Document Summary
Topic 5: cell-to-cell signalling: chapter 8: cells can respond to environmental chemicals, and signalling molecules generated by other cells in the organism, within multicellular organisms, types of communication include gap junctions and plasmodesmata, contact, and chemical messengers. In order for chemical messages to work, there must be a signalling molecule (first messenger) that is synthesized by the cell and is used to generate the original signal and alter the activities of other cells. These activities include changes in gene expression, activities of the cytoskeleton, cell death etc. The response to the chemical messenger is through a signalling system. First, there is a receptor that binds the signalling molecule. In the absence of the receptor, the cell cannot respond to the signal. Receptors can be in the membrane, cytosolic or nuclear. The primary messenger binds to the receptor which initiates a series of events known as the signal transduction pathway.
