期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1999
卷号：96
期号：18
页码：10104-10108
DOI：10.1073/pnas.96.18.10104
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Receptor proteins in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells have been found to form two-dimensional clusters in the plasma membrane. In this study, we examine the proposition that such clusters might show coordinated responses because of the spread of conformational states from one receptor to its neighbors. A Monte Carlo simulation was developed in which receptors flipped in probabilistic fashion between an active and an inactive state. Conformational energies depended on (i) ligand binding, (ii) a chemical modification of the receptor conferring adaptation, and (iii) the activity of neighboring receptors. Rate constants were based on data from known biological receptors, especially the bacterial Tar receptor, and on theoretical constraints derived from an analogous Ising model. The simulated system showed a greatly enhanced sensitivity to external signals compared with a corresponding set of uncoupled receptors and was operational over a much wider range of ambient concentrations. These and other properties should make a lattice of conformationally coupled receptors ideally suited to act as a "nose" by which a cell can detect and respond to extracellular stimuli.
