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Immediate-early genes — how immediate and why early?

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Immediate-Early Genes in the Central Nervous System

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Abstract

The prerequisite for multicellularity is the effective integration of component cells in the formation and maintenance of complex tissue architectures. As a consequence, metazoan cells require sophisticated molecular machinery with which to communicate with their environment. Over the past decade there have been substantial advances in our understanding of the molecular processes by which cells receive, transduce and generate signals. The molecules that comprise such signal transduction pathways include a bewilderingly diverse set of functions, reflecting the diverse consequences that signals generate in differing cell types. However, one of the most intriguing general findings is that many components of signal transduction pathways can function as oncogenes if their activity becomes deregulated or inappropriately activated: that is, they trigger inappropriate and unrestrained cell proliferation leading to neoplastic transformation. This in turn indicates that cell proliferation is under the control of signalling pathways and, therefore, regulated by the availability of external mitogenic signals. The importance of signal transduction pathways in carcinogenesis has largely driven the recent enormous advances in our understanding of the molecular basis of these processes.

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  1. Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories, 44, Lincolns Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3PX, UK

    G. I. Evan

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  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Psychiatrie Klinisches Institut, Klinische Neuropharmakologie, Kraepelinstr. 2-10, D-80804, München, Germany

    T. R. Tölle , J. Schadrack  & W. Zieglgänsberger ,  & 

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Evan, G.I. (1995). Immediate-early genes — how immediate and why early?. In: Tölle, T.R., Schadrack, J., Zieglgänsberger, W. (eds) Immediate-Early Genes in the Central Nervous System. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79562-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79562-6_1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-79562-6

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