Calcium as Second Messengers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Calcium as Second Messengers - Essay ExampleCalcium ions are in like manner important intracellular messengers. In fact, calcium ions are probably the most widely used intracellular messengers (Kimball, 2006). Calcium plays a fundamental role in a variety of cellular functions. It is involved in contraction, secretion, endocytosis, transport across membranes and in more general processes such as cell motility, cell offshoot and cell division (De Robertis & De Robertis, 1987). Calcium is one of the most important second messenger molecules, with a divers(prenominal) array of effectors. The intracellular Ca2+ plays a role as the second messenger in the hypotonic stress-induced Na+ transport by stimulating the transcription of SGK1 and ENaC subunits (Taruno, Niisato, Marunaka, 2007). Calcium directly moderates electrical activity, on a relatively fast time scale, through its control of calcium-dependent potassium channels. Long term effects are negotiate by various kinases and phos phatases. Calcium is one of the activators of protein kinase C, which plays a role in synaptic plasticity. In a confused with calmodulin56, calcium is an activator or regulator of several enzymes, including calcium-calmodulin dependent protein kinase, which plays a role in synaptic plasticity, and adenylate cyclase, which produces cAMP, another important second messenger. ... Once Ca2+ was recognized as a carrier of signals, it became important to see how its concentration within cells was regulated. Reversible complexation to specific ligands soon emerged as the only reasonable means to complete the task. A number of splendid cell ligands bind Ca2+ with low affinity, but the process needed complex ligands able to complex Ca2+ with the specificity and affinity demanded by the intracellular ambient. A breakthrough in this direction was the termination of the crystal structure of parvalbumin by Kretsinger in 1972. This still functionally mysterious Ca2+ backrest protein was to be come the primogenitor of a family of proteins known as EF manus proteins, which has now grown to nearly 600 members. EF hand proteins do fan Ca2+ but also play another important role They decode the information carried by Ca2+ and depart it on to targets. They do so by changing conformation after binding Ca2+ and after interacting with targets. Essentially, EF hand proteins become more hydrophobic on the surface after complexing Ca2+, approach the target, and collapse around its binding domain. Thus, these proteins are better defined as Ca2+ modulated proteins, or Ca2+ sensors (Carafoli, 2002). Second messenger pathways, and some mechanisms arrogant calcium concentration, are modeled as a series of bimolecular reactions, enzymatic reactions, and dissemination. These processes occur twain in compartments where the number of molecules are large enough to describe reactions deterministically (e.g. cell body), and in compartments where the number of molecules is small enough that reactions occur stochastically (e.g. spines). Thus, to model and simulate second messenger pathways in neurons requires algorithms for both diffusion and reactions, both