Premium
Cyclic di‐nucleotide signaling enters the eukaryote domain
Author(s) -
Schaap Pauline
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
iubmb life
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.132
H-Index - 113
eISSN - 1521-6551
pISSN - 1521-6543
DOI - 10.1002/iub.1212
Subject(s) - eukaryote , biology , chemotaxis , signal transduction , intracellular , nucleotide , microbiology and biotechnology , second messenger system , biofilm , bacteria , gene , receptor , biochemistry , genetics , genome
Cyclic (c‐di‐GMP) is the prevalent intracellular signaling intermediate in bacteria. It triggers a spectrum of responses that cause bacteria to shift from a swarming motile phase to sessile biofilm formation. However, additional functions for c‐di‐GMP and roles for related molecules, such as c‐di‐AMP and c‐AMP‐GMP continue to be uncovered. The first usage of cyclic‐di‐nucleotide (c‐di‐NMP) signaling in the eukaryote domain emerged only recently. In dictyostelid social amoebas, c‐di‐GMP is a secreted signal that induces motile amoebas to differentiate into sessile stalk cells. In humans, c‐di‐NMPs, which are either produced endogenously in response to foreign DNA or by invading bacterial pathogens, trigger the innate immune system by activating the expression of interferon genes. STING, the human c‐di‐NMP receptor, is conserved throughout metazoa and their closest unicellular relatives, suggesting protist origins for human c‐di‐NMP signaling. Compared to the limited number of conserved protein domains that detect the second messengers cAMP and cGMP, the domains that detect the c‐di‐NMPs are surprisingly varied. © 2013 The Authors. IUBMB Life published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 65(11):897–903, 2013