Receptor-based mechanism of relative sensing and cell memory in mammalian signaling networks.

ABSTRACT: Detecting relative rather than absolute changes in extracellular signals enables cells to make decisions in constantly fluctuating environments. It is currently not well understood how mammalian signaling networks store the memories of past stimuli and subsequently use them to compute relative signals, that is perform fold change detection. Using the growth factor-activated PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, we develop here computational and analytical models, and experimentally validate a novel non-transcriptional mechanism of relative sensing in mammalian cells. This mechanism relies on a new form of cellular memory, where cells effectively encode past stimulation levels in the abundance of cognate receptors on the cell surface. The surface receptor abundance is regulated by background signal-d

SUBMITTER: Lyashenko E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7046471 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature