Cell Communication Flashcards
(136 cards)
What is the intracellular response to extracellular signals?
Cell signaling
What is the conversion of information into a chemical change called?
Transduction
What four forms does information arrive in at cells?
Purely physical: (energy), light, sound, heat, pressure, and electricity
Chemical: neurotransmitters, hormones, eicosanoids, drugs, toxins
Cellular: gap junctions
Extracellular matrix molecules: collagen (think of platelet adhesion)
What are the 3 main methods of intracellular communication?
Endocrine
Paracrine
Autocrine
What are the strongest bonds to weakest? (Think chemistry)
Covalent > ionic > hydrogen > hydrophobic > van der Waals
What is it called when an enzyme associated with a signal receptor is activated and in turn, catalyzes the activation of many molecules of a second enzyme, each with activates a 3rd enzyme!?!
Amplification
What is it called when a transduction has a cell-specific receptor?
Specificity and sensitively
What is the ability of a signal-transfixing system to receive multiple signals and produce a unified response appropriate to the cell’s needs?
Integration
What two types of feedback are there?
Positive and negative
What is it when multiple components of signaling pathways are brought together on scaffold proteins to increase their local concentration and effects?
Compartmentalization
(I.e. ryanodine receptors)
What happens when a signal is present continuously?
Desensitization
What is the general flow through a G-protein-coupled receptor?
First Rabbit Eats the Sweetest Carrots
First messenger >
Receptor >
Effector >
Second messenger >
Cellular response
What are the 6 steps to the signaling pathway?
“Run To The Market Randy Travis!”
Recognition ~ of the signal by the receptor
Transduction ~ excellular message into an intracellular signal
Transmission ~ second messenger’s signal to the appropriate effector
Modulation ~ on/off switch
Response
Termination ~ usually accomplished by feedback control
What is it called when any chemical binds to a receptor?
Ligand (first messenger)
Causes a conformational change and initiates the signaling sequence
What is the final consequence of recognition and transduction?
Generation of a second messenger and/or the activation of a catalytic cascade
What two phases usually occur during transmission?
Amplification and integration
What are considered two methods of modulation?
Enzymatic phosphorylation or dephosphorylation reactions
How is feedback often accomplished?
Feedback control
This is the most common control system for maintaining homeostasis. If a factor is excessive or deficient, this feedback loop will produce a series of effects to reverse the change and return the value to its set point.
Negative feedback loop
In this control mechanism, a change in some factor will produce an enhanced or accelerated change in the same direction. Know as “vicious cycles”
Positive feedback loop
What are 3 examples of a positive feedback loop?
Childbirth
Blood coagulation
Opening of voltage-gated Na* channels to initiate and propagate
What is endocrine cell signaling?
A signaling molecule is secreted by a endocrine cell and transported through the circulation where it acts on a distant target cell
***hormones
What is paracrine cell signaling?
A chemical signal molecule is released by one cell and acts locally to regulate the behavior of a neighboring cell.
**neurotrasmitter cell signaling
What is autocrine cell signaling?
A cell responds to a signaling molecule that it also produced!
***NE stimulating alpha-2 receptor