TY - JOUR
T1 - Molecular Mechanisms of Mechanosensation
T2 - Big Lessons from Small Cells
AU - Blount, Paul
N1 - Funding Information:
Paul Blount gratefully acknowledges his support by a Robert A. Welch Foundation Grant I-1420, the Air Force Research Laboratory under agreement number F49620-01-1-0503, and National Institutes of Health grants GM61028 and DK60818.
PY - 2003/3/6
Y1 - 2003/3/6
N2 - Little is known of molecular mechanisms of human mechanosensation. Only now are candidate eukaryotic sensors being identified. In contrast, bacterial sensors, including mechanosensitive channels, have been cloned, sequenced, reconstituted, and functional mutants characterized. Moreover, crystal structures for bacterial mechanosensitive channels have been resolved and structural gating transitions predicted. These studies give clues to general principles underlying the ability of a membrane protein to sense and respond to perturbations of its lipid environment that may be conserved between bacteria and humans.
AB - Little is known of molecular mechanisms of human mechanosensation. Only now are candidate eukaryotic sensors being identified. In contrast, bacterial sensors, including mechanosensitive channels, have been cloned, sequenced, reconstituted, and functional mutants characterized. Moreover, crystal structures for bacterial mechanosensitive channels have been resolved and structural gating transitions predicted. These studies give clues to general principles underlying the ability of a membrane protein to sense and respond to perturbations of its lipid environment that may be conserved between bacteria and humans.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037421991&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/S0896-6273(03)00122-3
DO - 10.1016/S0896-6273(03)00122-3
M3 - Short survey
C2 - 12628164
AN - SCOPUS:0037421991
SN - 0896-6273
VL - 37
SP - 731
EP - 734
JO - Neuron
JF - Neuron
IS - 5
ER -