Comunicación celular. Transducción de señales acopladas a proteínas G heterotriméricas

Abstract

Most of the chemical messengers are hydrophilic molecules that exert their biological effect through transmembrane receptors which couple to heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide binding proteins (Gproteins). These G-proteins are signal transductors and they also represent the central part of a molecular machine which is able to receive, integrate and process information carried out by extracellular signals. Several different mechanisms for signal transduction are known. This paper focuses the molecular mechanisms of signal transduction via heterotrimeric G proteins.