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Cell signaling: What is the signal and what information does it carry?
Author(s) -
Brent Roger
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2009.11.029
Subject(s) - signal (programming language) , computer science , point (geometry) , transmission (telecommunications) , information transmission , extracellular , steady state (chemistry) , biological system , carry (investment) , signal transduction , control (management) , control theory (sociology) , chemistry , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , mathematics , economics , telecommunications , artificial intelligence , computer network , geometry , programming language , finance
This paper reviews key findings from quantitative study of the yeast pheromone response system. Most come from single cell experiments that quantify molecular events the system uses to operate. After induction, signal propagation is relatively slow; peak activity takes minutes to reach the nucleus. At each measurement point along the transmission chain, signal rises, overshoots, peaks, and declines toward steady state. At at least one measurement point, this decline depends on negative feedback. The system senses and relays percent receptor occupancy, and one effect of the feedback is to maximize precision of this transmitted information. Over time, the system constantly adjusts quantitative behaviors to convey extracellular ligand concentration faithfully. These behaviors and mechanisms that control them are likely to be general for metazoan signaling systems.