Abstract
Cell signaling pathways are complicated processes for all cells and need to be for messages to be relayed to the right place, especially in eukaryotic cells. While there are some well described pathways in Archaea and Bacteria, an overlooked possibility of a simple cell signaling pathway is the ability of extremophilic proteins to change their general structure and overall stability when environmental conditions change. Changes to a protein’s general structure, its ability to bind to and turnover a substrate and its flexibility provides a significant “signal” to other proteins in the cell that leads to downstream effects that could constitute a signal for the cell. By using protein structure, and changes it brings, as a sensor, a complex or elaborate communications system might be unnecessary. Appreciating these adaptations and how the cells respond to them would facilitate our ability to understand how extremophiles survive.
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Spradlin, S., Cobani, L., Brininger, C., Evilia, C. (2017). Archaea Were Trailblazers in Signaling Evolution: Protein Adaptation and Structural Fluidity as a Form of Intracellular Communication. In: Witzany, G. (eds) Biocommunication of Archaea. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65536-9_12
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