Absolute Ligand Discrimination by Dimeric Signaling Receptors.

ABSTRACT: Many signaling pathways act through shared components, where different ligand molecules bind the same receptors or activate overlapping sets of response regulators downstream. Nevertheless, different ligands acting through cross-wired pathways often lead to different outcomes in terms of the target cell behavior and function. Although a number of mechanisms have been proposed, it still largely remains unclear how cells can reliably discriminate different molecular ligands under such circumstances. Here we show that signaling via ligand-induced receptor dimerization-a very common motif in cellular signaling-naturally incorporates a mechanism for the discrimination of ligands acting through the same receptor.

SUBMITTER: Fathi S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5018129 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature