Cooperativity between bacterial chemotaxis receptors

摘要

Cellular sensory transduction pathways typically begin at the cell surface where membrane-spanning receptors detect an external stimulus, propogate a transmembrane signal, and regulate cyto-plasmic signaling events. In many pathways these cell surface receptors have been thought to function independently, without significant interactions between receptor molecules. For example, in pro-karyotic and eukaryotic cells the most prevalent types of cell surface receptors are histidine kinase-coupled receptors (HKCRs) and G protein-coupled receptors, respectively. Both of these receptor classes traditionally have been described as devoid of direct receptor-receptor interactions. By contrast, receptor-receptor interactions arc known to play an important role in certain other receptor classes, including tyrosine kinase receptors.