A reference on cellular signaling processes, the third edition of Signal Transduction continues in the tradition of previous editions, in providing a historical overview of how the concept of stimulus-response coupling arose in the early twentieth century and shaped our current understanding of the action of hormones, cytokines, neurotransmitters, growth factors and adhesion molecules. In a new chapter, an introduction to signal transduction, the book provides a concise overview of receptor mechanisms, from receptor â ligand interactions to post-translational modifications operational in the process of bringing about cellular changes. The phosphorylation process, from bacteria to men, is discussed in detail.
Signal transduction third edition further elaborates on diverse signaling cascades within particular contexts such as muscle contraction, innate and adaptive immunity, glucose metabolism, regulation of appetite, oncogenic transformation and cell fate decision during development or in stem cell niches. The subjects have been enriched with descriptions of the relevant anatomical, histological, physiological or pathological condition.
In-depth insight into a subject central to cell biology and fundamental to biomedicine, including the search for novel therapeutic interventions
Essential signaling events embedded in rich physiological and pathological contexts
Extensive conceptual colour artwork to assist with comprehension of key topics
Special emphasis on how molecular structure determines protein function and subcellular localization
Employment of unambiguous protein names (symbols) in agreement with leading protein- and gene databases, allowing the learner to extend his/her exploration on the web
Frequently asked questions
Simply head over to the account section in settings and click on âCancel Subscriptionâ - itâs as simple as that. After you cancel, your membership will stay active for the remainder of the time youâve paid for. Learn more here.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlegoâs features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan youâll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, weâve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes, you can access Signal Transduction by ljsbrand M. Kramer in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Scienze biologiche & Biochimica. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
The expression signal transduction first made its mark in the biological literature in the 1970s (Hildebrand, 1977) and appeared as a title word in 1979 (Springer et al., 1979; Koman et al., 1979; Kenny et al., 1979). Physical scientists and electronic engineers had earlier used the term to describe the conversion of energy, or information, from one form into another. For example, a microphone transduces sound waves into electrical signals. The term implies two related activities: one concerns transmission and the other translation of the original signal (a sound wave). Its widespread use in bio-speak was triggered by an important review by Martin Rodbell, published in 1980. He was the first to draw attention to the role of GTP and GTP-binding proteins in metabolic regulation and he deliberately borrowed the term transducer to describe their role in the relay of the receptor signal to the effector (Figure 1-1).
Alfred G Gilman and Martin Rodbell were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1994 âfor their discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells.â
In the year 2010, 12.6% of all papers using the term cell also employed the expression signal transduction and 16.6% also employed the expression signaling (the American spelling of signalling) (information from PubMed). The explosion in signal transduction research corresponds with the episode in which it became apparent that oncogenes disrupt ordinary, well-controlled, signaling processes. In particular Ras, the product of the oncogene ras leading to the formation of rat sarcoma, and its role in growth factor signaling has been the subject of intense investigation. It occurs that signaling mechanisms are an important research domain in biological sciences (Figure 1-2).
Below follows a description of personalities and experiments, during the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, that have paved the way to our current understanding of how different parts of the body communicate with one another (hormones, neurotransmitters, growth factors). Naturally, major discoveries gave rise to controversy (as they challenged hegemony of ideas and personalities) and, as a consequence, a good dose of (persistent) anxiety for those who deviated from the trodden path. Our account also shows that in many instances, scientists did not really know what to look for and thus what to expect from their experiments. Only through the course of their experimentations did they develop a sense of direction and importantly, understanding. Had they been confronted with current grant application forms, the section âexpected outcomeâ would be manifested by its blankness.
Transduction entries in the Oxford English Dictionary (Figures 1-3 and 1-4)
Irritability, a vital phenomenon
The origin of life is often considered as fundamentally a problem of the origin of template replication. However, replication itself is not sufficient, metabolism was another important property right from the beginning (Dyson, 1999). According to Thomas Henry Huxley (Figure 1-5), a third essential element for the living comprises a stimulus-response system. Ultimately, this system became the basis of how organisms respond to the environment, and how parts of an organism (or whole organisms) communicate with one another. In his lecture on âthe physical basis of lifeâ (Edinburgh, on the evening of Sunday November 8, 1868), Huxley argues that all living things, ranging from Amoebae to Homo sapiens, are substantially similar in kind with respect to elementary functions and substance (which he named âprotoplasmâ). Irritability, Huxleyâs description of stimulus-response coupling, takes an essential place among the list of âvital phenomena.â
In physiological language this means that all the multifarious and complicated activities of man are comprehensible under three categories: either they are immediately directed towards the maintenance and development of the body (âmetabolismâ), or they effect transitory changes in the relative positions of parts of the body (âstimulus-responseâ), or they tend towards the continuance of the species (âtemplate replicationâ). Even those manifestations of intellect, of feeling, and of will, which we rightly name the higher faculties, are not excluded from this classification, inasmuch as to everyone but the subject of them, they are known only as transitory changes in the relative positions of parts of the body. Speech, gesture, and every other form of human action are, in the long run, resolvable into muscular contraction, and muscular contraction is but a transitory change in the relative positions of the parts of a muscle. But the scheme which is large enough to embrace the activities of the highest form of life, covers all those of the lower creatures. The lowest plant, or animalcule, feeds, grows, and reproduces its kind. In addition, all animals manifest those transitory changes of form which we class under irritability and contractility; and, it is more than probable, that when the vegetable world is thoroughly explored, we shall find all plants in possession of the same powers, at one time or other of their existence.
Irritability
Perhaps it were the medusa that he studied during his voyage on the HMS Rattlesnake (around 1846), that led Huxley to employ the word âirritabilityâ and âcontractilityâ (rather than stimulus-response coupling). Describing the stomach, situated under the disc of Rhizostoma he writes: âFrom this âcommon canalâ a series of parallel diverticula are given off at regular intervals, and run to the edge of the branch, where they terminate by rounded oblique openings. It is not always easy to see these apertures, but I have repeatedly satisfied myself of their presence by passing a needle or other delicate body into them. The difficulty in seeing the openings arises in great measure from the presence of a membrane which surrounds and overlaps them, and being very irritable, contracts over them on being touchedâ (Huxley, 1849).
Cellular theory and protoplasm
The initial microscopic observations of cellular structures by Robert Hooke (around 1653) and Anthony van Leeuwenhoek (around 1682) obtained full recognition when in 1832 the German botanist Matthias Schleiden proclaimed that cells were the elementary structures of plants. A few years later, Theodore Schwann showed that the animal tissues were also made up of cells, and that they owed their beginning and development to the activity of cell elements; thus originated the âcellular theory.â Until 1888, the composition of the brain remained, however, an enigma. In that year Santiago Ramon y Cajal, using Camillo Golgiâs silver nitrate impregnation staining, convincingly demonstrated that even the soft, near homogeneous, gray matter was made up of distinctive structures, the nerve cells.
In his âManual of Physiologyâ (1889) Gerald Yeo, from Kingâs College, describes the characteristics of the cell as follows: âThe first idea which was conveyed by the term cell varied much from that which we now accept as a proper definition of such an organic unit. Fully developed veget...
Table of contents
Cover image
Title page
Table of Contents
Copyright
Biography
Preface
Chapter 1. Prologue: Signal Transduction from an Historical Perspective
Chapter 2. An Introduction to Signal Transduction
Chapter 3. Regulation of Muscle Contraction by Adrenoceptors
Chapter 4. Cholinergic Signaling and Muscle Contraction
Chapter 5. Sensory Signal Processing; Visual Transduction and Olfaction
Chapter 6. Intracellular Calcium
Chapter 7. Bringing the Signal into the Nucleus: Regulation of Gene Expression
Chapter 8. Nuclear Receptors
Chapter 9. Protein Kinase C in Oncogenic Transformation and Cell Polarity
Chapter 10. Regulation of Cell Proliferation by Receptor Tyrosine Protein Kinases
Chapter 11. Signal Transduction to and from Adhesion Molecules
Chapter 12. WNT Signaling and the Regulation of Cell Adhesion and Differentiation
Chapter 13. Activation of the Innate Immune System: The Toll-Like Receptor-4 and Signaling through Ubiquitinylation
Chapter 14. Chemokines and Traffic of White Blood Cells
Chapter 15. Activating the Adaptive Immune System: Role of Non-receptor Tyrosine Kinases
Chapter 16. Signaling through the Insulin Receptor: Phosphoinositide 3-Kinases and AKT
Chapter 17. TGFÎČ and Signaling through Receptor Serine/Threonine Protein Kinases