INTERCELLULAR COMMUNICATION-MECHANISMS

SUMMARY

1. Extracellular ligands are called first messengers & intracellular mediators are called second messengers.


2. The receptor-ligand interaction is transduced into secondary response within the cell.

3. Second messengers do the following: ion channel activation, G-protein activation, intracellular enzyme activation, transcription activation.

4. The cell signalling pathway amplifies the primary signal and distributes it to appropriate targets within the cell.

5. The predominant post-translational modification of proteins is phosphorylation via kinases (phosphorylate tyrosine/serine/theornine residues) or phosphatases (remove phosphates from proteins/lipids).

Reference(s)

Barrett, K.E., Barman, S.M., Brooks, H.L., X, J. and Ganong, W.F. (2019). Ganong’s review of medical physiology. 26th ed. New York: Mcgraw-Hill Education