Mechanisms of Cellular Signal Transduction

Folding and Unfolding of a Fully Synthetic Transmembrane Receptor for ON/OFF Signal Transduction

“…Cellular signal transduction is an indispensable process which helps to maintain metabolic homeostasis and promote intercellular communication in multicellular organisms. − This intricate process begins with the recognition and binding of extracellular signaling ligands to transmembrane receptors, triggering conformational changes and thereby activating intracellular reactions and downstream signaling cascade propagation. For example, the transduction pathway of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) is a crucial component of cell signaling, which involves a sequence of intricate events .…”

“…The enhanced and red-shifted absorption verified Zn 2+ -induced unfolding of AFC (Figure 2a, Figure S1), and the reversible recovery by adding TAEA indicated the controllable folding/ unfolding of AFC (Figure 2b, Figure S2). 1 H NMR analysis also confirmed the Zn 2+ binding to AFC (Figure 2c). It suggested that AFC can undergo reversible folding/unfolding conformational changes through complexation and decomplexation with Zn 2+ .…”